Worm - Justice For All
by SeerKing
Summary: When Taylor Hebert Triggered in the Locker, the Entities were slow to act. Instead of the [Queen Administrator], she was gifted with the seed of power known as an [Embryo], which becomes a powerful weapon one month after The Locker. How will this change the world of Earth Bet? Gamer!Taylor! Has a TVTropes page!
1. Session 1-1

**Author's Corner:**

 **SeerKing looks up from a desk covered in paper full of fanfic ideas, a pen in his hand.**

" **Oh, it's you lot." He said with frustrated sigh. "Well here you are. As promised, I am both posting a different story to Ranma Saotome: Chi Master AND posting the first chapter of my Worm/Infinite Dendrogram crossover, Justice For All."**

 **Pointing at a computer monitor, he continued. "I have seen your reviews for Demon Lord of the Swarm and I may -MAY!- choose to start that one when one of my other stories is finished. Not before then. I have far too bloody many stories on the go as it is."**

 **Before he can say any more, something smashed through the wall.**

" **Oh for…! What** _ **now**_ **?!"**

" **Greetings!" a loud voice boomed. A man wearing a full body black bear suit appeared in the new opening in the wall. "It is I, his bearliness, Shu Starling, here fur a visit. Please bear with me."**

" **What the heck are you doing here?!" SeerKing demanded. "You're supposed to be waiting for the next volume of** _ **Infinite Dendrogram**_ **to be released this month! And don't break my wall, dammit!"**

" **It's bearly anything to be concerned about." The bear waved the outraged author's demands away. "Besides, waiting fur months to get more book time is unbearable. It's like being put on paws the whole time. So boring! So, I decided to visit the only author I know who has written a Dendro fanfic fur a while."**

" **Why you…! Here, have a look at this!" SeerKing brought up the page for the next volume of Dendro on his computer and showed it to Shu.**

" **Let's see…mutter, mutter…Kaguya knockoff…mutter, mutter…WHAT!" Shu roared. "Why that jumped up little! This is not to bear fruit! I'm bearly able to contain my anger! Damn youuuuu!"**

 **With that, the bear-costumed man charged back out the hole in the wall that he'd made.**

" **Come back here and fix my wall! Or at least** _ **pay**_ **for it!" SeerKing shouted before facepalming and staring at the wall with a deadpan expression on his face. "Well, there goes the deposit."**

 **Looking back up, he said, "And that guy was Shu Starling from Infinite Dendrogram, in case you missed the introduction. He's also known by the title of [King of Destruction], mostly because he blows shit up a lot. And wrecks things. If you wanna know more, buy the series. Now, scroll down and start reading. I hope you enjoy this chapter and as always, reviews make the world go around and are greatly appreciated. Aside from flames, but that goes without saying."**

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.1**

 _3rd of February, 2011, Earth Bet_

 _Taylor's Room, Hebert Residence, Brockton Bay_

I blinked in shock at the girl standing before me. She was young, maybe about the size and age of a ten-year-old, with blond hair in a close-cropped cut. And she was wearing the oddest clothes; a white robe that was definitely a toga of some description, a cuirass of some sort that had a very…um… _mature_ female figure on it, a hairband that had golden spikes jutting out of it and a blindfold around her eyes.

Just a minute ago, I had entered my room to deal with the itching on the back of my left hand. I had received a ragged circle-shaped scar on the back of my hand during the locker incident last month and it had been itching like _crazy_ for the last day and I was starting to get really worried.

Had I contracted an infection that had inexplicably lain dormant until today?

Then, as soon as I threw my backpack to the floor and closed my door, the scar had started glowing a brilliant white before flaring so bright I'd be surprised if half the Bay hadn't seen it. When my eyes had cleared a few seconds later this girl dressed like Greco-Roman play actor was standing opposite of me.

Needless to say I was currently taking the moment of silence to reboot my brain from 'Blue Screen of WTF?!' mode.

"Greetings, Taylor." The girl spoke. Her voice was soft, caring and kind. It also carried a ring of maturity of something far older than her appearance would dictate.

"Wh-who are you?" I managed to stammer out, my brain still trying to process what had happened.

"I am Iustitia." The girl introduced herself calmly. "I am your power made manifest."

"Isn't…isn't that the Ancient Roman Goddess of Justice?" I said in stupefaction. My mother had an interest in mythology, and it was one of the things I'd taken in an interest in as I'd grown up.

"It is also my name." Iustitia inclined her head slightly. "I am what is known as an Embryo. When you Triggered in that locker, I was born within you in my Zeroth Form. Over the past month, I have grown, studying your personality, your morals and your actions. As of today, I was ready to emerge as a Stage 1 Embryo, a Type-Maiden with Arms."

"O…kay?" I moved to the bed and sat down heavily. This was a bit much to take in. "I have no idea what most of that means." I admitted aloud.

"I know. I am a part of you, so your knowledge of this world was downloaded into me when I was born." The Embryo informed me. "You can also speak with me telepathically if you wish, but with the biases against mind powers here, I doubt you will."

Yeah, the Simurgh had soured people to any kind of mind-to-mind communication, and evil Masters like Heartbreaker hadn't exactly improved their perceptions _either_.

"To give you a brief summation, an Embryo is a being, a power born from their Master's actions, personality and decisions; forming into a manifestation of the core concepts by which they base their life. In my case, I was born from you and I was shaped and grown in reaction to your actions, words and personality over the month I slept within you." Iustitia started. "There are many types of Embryo, but I am what is known as a Type-Maiden. We are relatively rare existences, born to those who care for something or someone greatly. We take the form of a girl and grow until we are teenagers in step with the strength of our Masters. Type-Maidens are hybrid Embryos, possessing another Embryo Type in addition to our maiden Type. In my case, I am a Type-Maiden with Arms, meaning that I transform into a weapon and/or armour."

My mind swirled with information. OK, it was official; either this was real or I was in a coma in real life. Or maybe some Merchant banger had slipped me something during school or something?

"OK…OK…" I muttered, trying to reaffirm my grip on reality. "So…anything else?" I asked.

"Walk over to the mirror over there." Iustitia nodded towards my open wardrobe door, with the mirror on the inside of it. Shrugging, I did so.

"Touch it with the index finger from your left and run it down about a foot." Iustitia instructed me.

Feeling a bit silly, I did so. Then my eyes almost popped out of their sockets as words scrolled down in the actual glass itself.

 **Name: Taylor Hebert**

 **Gender: Female**

 **Level: 0**

 **Title: None**

 **Job (s): None**

 **EXP: 79/100**

 **Embryo: Maiden of Justice Iustitia**

 **Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms**

 **Embryo Forms Achieved: 1/7**

 **Stats**

 **HP: 150**

 **STA: 1000**

 **MP: 155**

 **Strength: 10**

 **Toughness: 10**

 **Endurance: 10**

 **Intelligence: 20**

 **Wisdom: 15**

 **Luck: ?**

"Th-this is…!" I breathed.

"This is an ability all Embryos give their Masters; the ability to quantify and display your physical and mental attributes." Iustitia stated proudly. "Any questions about your stats?"

Did I ever. I was interested in my HP or Health Points and MP or Magic Points. Apparently 150 is the base number all Embryo Masters received when their Embryo first emerges. They increased by five points each for ever ten points in certain stats once they got above ten. HP was dictated by Strength and Toughness, while MP was dictated by Intelligence and Wisdom. Stamina, as it turned out, was used for non-magical (oh _god_ , I was turning into _Myrddin_!) attacks, such as sword techniques, as well as being drained as I ran or engaged in combat. It gained a hundred points for every ten points in Endurance and Toughness.

As a bonus, by unlocking Iustitia's First Form, all of my stats had been raised to at least ten across the board. Lucky me.

Luck was a puzzle for us both. It was usually a number that represented your ability to encounter enemies, the quality of the loot drops from defeated enemies and even how frequently quests were issued. That it was represented by a solitary question mark merely confirmed for me that someone up there was screwing with my life, and likely not in a good way.

Iustitia then showed me how to shift it to the next page, the Skills page, by swiping my left index finger to the left for a foot. It should have been blank, but I had apparently generated three skills during the month of Iustitia's growth in her Zeroth Form.

 **Taylor Hebert's Skills**

 **\- Pain Resistance (LV2)**

 **\- Danger Sense (LV1)**

 **\- Acting (LV2)**

 **[Pain Resistance]** came from all of the hits I'd endured, **[Danger Sense]** had been the feeling of _wrongess_ that had started to come whenever I was about to be pranked by the Bitch Trio and **[Acting]** came from me feigning that nothing was wrong to Dad. All of them would be useful if I became a hero, but the way I had earned them sucked.

The next page, accessed the exact same way, was Iustitia's skills, which I found interesting.

 **Maiden of Justice Iustitia's Skills and Abilities**

 **\- [Justice is Blind] (Form One)**

 **\- [Balance the Scales] (Form One)**

 **\- [Justice over Earthly Authority] (Maiden Form)**

 **\- [The People's Welfare is Supreme] (Maiden Form)**

They were all very impressive. **[Justice is Blind]** levelled the playing field between me and an opposing enemy, power wise. By activating it, I could choose any enemy within ten meters and inflict any powers or effects that were negatively affecting my senses or perception onto them

 **[Balance the Scales]** was a bit scarier. When I activated it, I generated a Trump field around my body out to a maximum of a 10 meter radius (I could make it smaller if I wished, but only when I activate it. Once activated the size was set until it deactivated) that lowered the physical stats of anyone who entered it to equal mine. Since my own strength was… _negligible_ at best, this was a very good thing.

Both Skills were linked to Iustitia's 'First Form' and could only be activated while she was in that state.

 **[Justice over Earthly Authority]** apparently gave Iustitia the ability to render judgement onto others. It was a bit like the Penance Stare from _Ghost Rider_ , except it didn't leave the victim a vegetable. Instead, by locking eyes with someone, Iustitia could instantly learn any crime that the person had knowingly committed, even witnessing the person's own memory of the crime if she so chose to. It wasn't really _rendering judgement_ in my opinion, but it was still a very useful ability and one that could be very useful for a hero.

Finally, **[The People's Welfare is Supreme]** allowed her to heal people. When this skill was activated, either by her or me uttering its name, her Maiden Form would suddenly begin to glow brightly and anyone within the light's reach would be healed. Like **[Justice is Blind]** and **[Balance the Scales]** it had a range of 10 meters centered on wherever Iustitia's body was manifested. It was primarily focused on healing physical trauma; cuts, bruises, lacerations, torn muscles, and could even reduce swelling in the brain to heal concussions and similar trauma. Sadly it was ineffective against diseases, cancer or anything like that; though it did affect poisons, both burning through them with time and undoing the damage they caused.

These two skills could only be activated while Iustitia was in her 'Maiden Form,' which was apparently the form I'd been speaking to.

"Whew…that is one impressive set of abilities that you have." I muttered, looking at my…Embryo…with appraising eyes.

"Yup. Especially considering that's only my First Form." The little goddess girl smirked.

"Yeah, the status page did say that you had access to _seven_ of them." I noted, absently flipping the screens back to said page. "How do you gain them?"

"You have to get stronger, Master." Iustitia stated. "At the moment, you are Level 0, weak. As you grow stronger and walk down your path, I can grow stronger myself and evolve as your convictions and personality grows."

"Huh?"

Iustitia walked over to me and tenderly grabbed my hand. "Master…Taylor, I was born from your desire for justice. Your need to make things right. As you walk along your path, I will grow and it will shape my path as well. I may change to a different type as opposed to a Maiden with Arms."

"What types are there?" I wondered.

"The main types are Arms, Guardian, Chariot, Castle and Territory." Iustitia explained, ticking each off on a finger. "Arms, as I explained, are weapons or armour. Guardians are similar to Maidens, but take the form of a creature that either attacks your foes, protects you, or offers some form of support abilities. Chariots are vehicles; they can literally be any kind of vehicle that the Master can control and ride and offer a wide range of abilities based on the form manifested. Castles can manifest as entire buildings that their Master can live in and often comes with defensive and supplementary abilities. Finally, Territories are barriers that enclose areas and inflict their abilities on all who stand within them. There are also rarer types like Legion types. They are rare Embryos that produce multiple creatures, not unlike Guardians though they often trade quality for quantity, which the player can command. Typically, they are the Sixth or Seventh Forms of a Guardian Embryo."

"So…you could become a Type-Maiden with Territory?" I clarified.

"Depending on how I grow, yes." Iustitia confirmed. I had to drive an episode of Earth Aleph's version of _Red Dwarf_ out of my mind, the one with the cornily named _Justice Field_ in it.

"Okay, so I guess the question is…how do I get stronger?" I mused. "I need a costume to go out as a Cape and I don't have one."

"Well, you're close to levelling up, Master." My Embryo noted. "I'd guess the experience points are from learning those three skills. Learning another one should do the trick."

"OK, what skill? I take it you have one in mind?" I questioned.

"Command me to transform into my Arms form." She said with a small smile.

"Uh…OK. Iustitia, take on your weapon form!" I said.

"By your command, Master." Iustitia curtseyed before vanishing in a flash of light. In her place was a sword. It was about the same size as her Maiden Form and had a leaf-shaped blade. Floating next to it was a set of scales, looking to be made of gold.

"This is my First Form, Master." The Embryo said. "Form One: **[Sword and Scales of Justice]**."

"So…sword fighting?" I asked.

"Sword _Mastery_ , but yes." Iustitia answered. "Thanks to having an Embryo, you will learn skills by doing repeated actions. Swinging my sword form will gain you the Sword Skills tree and possibly a Job."

"A Job? Do I get paid?" I joked, rather lamely I will admit.

"Not in the way that you mean." Iustitia answered, evidently needing to learn when someone was joking or being sarcastic. "Earning a job and levelling up that job gains you boosts to your stats, HP, MP and Stamina, as well as Class-specific Skills. You can even have multiple jobs equipped at once. Some Rare Jobs require that you have certain Jobs equipped as a perquisite."

…wow. I was in a RL version of an MMORPG.

' _Whatever. Roll with it. Just roll with it, Taylor._ ' I urged myself not wanting to go back into Blue Screen Mode.

"OK…this still leaves the question of where to hide you." I frowned. "Dad can be a bit dense, but even he isn't going to miss a ten year old dressed up like Lady Justice walking around, and he might find you if I leave you like this."

Iustitia transformed back to her Maiden form. "I can store myself inside of your Crest, Master."

I blinked. "My what?"

She pointed at my left hand and, resting where that odd circular scar had been, was now an elaborate tattoo depicting Iustitia in her sword form. "That tattoo is a Crest, the mark of the Master of an Embryo. I can store myself inside of it and speak to you telepathically if needed. This way, I can come out whenever you need, and I can assume whichever of my forms you need when I emerge."

That…did sound convenient. The telepathy thing was weird and a bit unpleasant to think about, but hey, she had basically been downloading information from my mind for the entire month she had been in Zeroth Form, so a little bit of telepathy was scarcely something to be concerned about at this point, I suppose.

"OK. Sounds like a plan." I smiled at her. "Looking forward to working with you, Iustitia."

"And I you, Master." Iustitia nodded back at me with a smile. "I am looking forward to becoming a Superior Embryo."

"A what now?" I asked.

"It is very hard to become a Seventh Form Embryo." My partner explained. "Those that manage it are known as 'Superior Embryos' and their Masters are known as 'Superior Masters,' or just Superiors for short. I have a good feeling I will reach that level while walking by your side, Master."

"Is there anything special about the Seventh Form?" I wondered.

"Yes." Iustitia nodded emphatically. "At the Sixth and Seventh Forms, an Embryo learns their two ultimate skills, ones that involve their name. Mine would start with 'Iustitia' and then have the rest of the attack name after that. They are the pinnacle of an Embryo's existence and a symbol of their pride."

"Wow…OK, I really like the sound of that." I nodded. "I'll definitely try to get you that far, Iustitia."

"Thank you, Master!" my Embryo hugged me around the waist. "Now we'd better find a place for you to practice with the sword so you can earn a Job."

"Well, there're abandoned warehouses all over the city." I mused as I gently hugged my Embryo back. It was weird touching someone again after all this time. The last person, Dad aside, that I had hugged had been Emma.

"Would the 'villains' that inhabit this land not be watching them?" Iustitia asked, her blindfolded face turning up to 'look' at me.

"I don't think so." I shook my head as I released her and sat down on my bed. "If we went to the Boat Graveyard, then probably? I hear that the Merchants got a new member recently called Whirlygig that was press-ganged when she was caught there. If we stay out of gang territory and keep to the abandoned warehouses in the Dockworker's Association area, we should be OK."

While the Dockworkers were a very much reduced force in The Bay than they had been before the advent of Leviathan, there was still over three-hundred members in the Association. This was _not_ an insignificant number, able to rival the numbers of even the E88's unpowered members. While the Empire was definitely a gang, and a racist bunch of pricks to boot, the potential for getting a lot of their members' asses kicked in the process stopped them, and most of the other gangs, from moving in to forcibly conscript them.

As such, they were content to lure men away from the Association with money, leaving the Dockworkers Association to collapse in on itself from lack of work. An unspoken no-gang zone was around the offices and warehouses that the Dockworkers owned and operated out of, which was why I was reasonably sure that I would be safe practicing there. Dad had assured Mom and me in the past that it was definitely safe for him to go to the warehouses for work.

"Mmm. Then we shall inspect them on the morrow, Mistress." Iustitia nodded. Then her face became more serious. "We must also discuss those…unjust _thugs_ who made you Trigger, Mistress. Something _must_ be done about them, not to mention your situation at that institution which laughably calls itself a place of education."

I froze up at the reminder.

"I am the embodiment of your Justice, Mistress." The little girl who was born from me whispered softly. "I _cannot_ allow those who have so gravely violated the law to prosper. Not only for your sake, but for the sake of others they might inflict the same torment upon. Don't you feel the same, Mistress?"

In truth, I did. I knew Sophia Hess' type. Once she was convinced that she had stamped down on me hard enough to drive her message home, she'd move on to find a new prey. Someone who hadn't yet given up. Someone who would entertain her, convince her that her stupid outlook of Predators and Prey was correct. I had suffered under that for over a year. I did _not_ want to undergo it any long, but at the same time, I didn't want anyone _else_ to suffer at Sophia's hands either.

"Sophia, Emma and Madison only have power over me in highschool." I said evenly to Iustitia. "Once we're out, Sophia won't have good job prospects, Emma's modelling career won't last long and Madison is too academically average to be anything more than that outside of school. I am smart and will be able to hold a good job, unlike them. The best revenge is living well."

"It is not of mere revenge or retribution I speak of, Mistress." My Embryo approached me and cupped my cheek, brushing away a tear I had been unaware of shedding. "It is of Justice that I speak. It is Justice for you that I seek and it is Justice that I embody. Will you allow these people to flout the law and act in such an unjust manner? My existence proves that no, you will not. All you need do is to realise that yourself."

…it hurt.

It _hurt_.

Forcing myself to just endure, day after day…it _**hurt**_ , dammit! Why me? What the hell had I _ever_ done to Sophia to earn this kind of suffering?! Why did she turn Emma against me? Why did Emma let herself get turned against me?!

Iustitia was right, I realised as tears fell from my eyes. I _couldn't_ let the Bitch Trio get away with what they had done to me. I couldn't allow them to flaunt justice as they had. I wanted justice, and by god I would _get_ it!

' _Have no fear, my Mistress._ ' Iustitia's voice whispered into my mind as she hugged me again. ' _I, your loyal Embryo, shall stand by your side and help you enact Justice against those who have made you suffer._ '

 _Same Time_

 _Motel Room, Brockton Bay_

In the dark room, the figure of a man sat on the bed, looking at the framed photograph clutched in his hands.

"Don't worry…they'll pay…" he whispered softly. "They'll ALL pay…"

Getting up, he moved over to his suitcase and replaced the frame in a padded envelope before placing it in the case. Closing it, flipping it over and opening the secret compartment within, he pulled out a costume…one that sparkled with all the colours of the rainbow.

"It's time to pay the Piper, Brockton Bay!"


	2. Session 1-2

**Author's Corner: SeerKing stood in front of the hole in his wall, banging on a nail with a hammer.**

" **Oh, it's you lot again." He said when he turned his head. "Yeah, I'm still fixing this hole that Shu smashed open. Damn git."**

 **A knock at his door made the author blink. "Huh…wonder who that could be?"**

 **Walking over to the door and opening it, he did a double-take at the person standing there. "EH!? Over Gladiator Figaro?! What're you doing here?!"**

" **Yeah, sorry for dropping in like this." The King of the City of Duelists said. "I'd heard about you from Shu and I came to see you. Is that the hole that Shu made when he burst in on you?"**

 **He pointed at the badly-repaired hole.**

" **Er…yup." SeerKing nodded. "He ran off when I showed him what would happen in the latest book of** _ **Infinite Dendrogram**_ **. Good work against Tsukuyo Fuso, by the way."**

" **Eh, fight her during the day and you have no problems so long as you finish her before night comes and she uses her Embryo's ultimate skill." Figaro waved a hand modestly. "Here, take this to pay for proper repairs. In exchange, let me have a look at the next chapter."**

" **Sounds fair." The author conceded, taking the offered bag of money. "It's on my computer's screen right now. Have at it."**

" **Thanks." The Over Gladiator nodded and padded over to read the fic, while SeerKing got on the phone to some joiners.**

" **That's quite the Embryo you gave her." Figaro said once he finished. "That [Balance the Scales] skill is a perfect counter to my Embryo."**

" **Eh, not really." SeerKing shrugged. "Yours lets you get stronger over time inverse to the number of equipment you have equipped. [Balance the Scales] is a onetime alteration of all physical stats to match the Master of Iustitia. There's nothing to prevent your Embryo's special effect from working, so as long as you can survive long enough, you'd likely come out ahead."**

" **Huh. Good eyes." The Over Gladiator nodded. "Well, I'd best get going. Got more levelling up to do and more equipment to grab. A bit of advice, that girl there would benefit from the [Gladiator] Job. The instant re-equip skill we have is really useful."**

 **With that, he left.**

" **Well, that's nice. At least he didn't destroy anything." SeerKing blinked. "Well, scroll down and read on. Remember, reviews, Flames aside, are appreciated. And please don't ask questions in guest reviews, because they will be summarily ignored."**

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.2**

 _The Next Day_

 _Abandoned Warehouse, Docks Area, Brockton Bay_

Swish!

"Ninety-seven!"

Swish!

"Ninety-eight!"

Swish!

"Ninety-nine!"

Swish!

"One-hundred!"

I sagged down panting after that last swing. Iustitia had been counting out the swings for me so I didn't have to waste oxygen doing it myself. Swinging a sword, even one the length of a ten-year-old child, with one hand might not _look_ difficult, but it took a surprisingly amount of effort to both control and maintain the swing without throwing myself off balance.

Then there was the fact that it was still a roughly twenty pound mass of metal that I was swinging back and forth for over an hour. My muscles were currently _screaming_ at me in protest!

On the bright side, I got two extra points of Strength and Endurance each from my efforts.

Iustitia changed into her Maiden form and smiled at me. "Congratulations Mistress. You've levelled up and gotten access to the Job Dendrogram."

"The what now?" I panted weakly. Damn it, I was out of shape. Looks like I needed to add exercise to the to-do list on my "Becoming a Hero" planner.

"To put it in gaming terms, it's a Job Tree." My partner/power/living-help-screen explained. "You unlock jobs based on your actions, your equipment and the weapons you use. Furthermore, the Jobs are divided into Low-Rank Jobs, Mid-Rank Jobs, and Superior Jobs. Anyone can acquire Low-Rank Jobs, and you can have up to six of those equipped, with each having a maximum level capacity of Level Fifty. Mid-Rank Jobs are harder, as they require you to perform certain actions, have certain jobs already equipped and at a certain level and/or to have defeated certain enemies. You can have up to three of those equipped at once, and they have better benefits than Low-Rank Jobs. Superior Jobs are _insanely_ difficult to acquire, but have almost Legendary-level stat bonuses and skills. Superior Jobs are so powerful that you can only have _two_ equipped at any one time."

"Whoa…" I said, somewhat recovered from my exertions. "So, how many jobs can I take now?"

"Only the one, as you only levelled up once." Iustitia answered. "But the next time you level up, you can choose another job, so you can level up more frequently, although I'd advise reaching level twenty in a job before trying to acquire a second one."

"He who tries to be strong everywhere is strong nowhere." I quoted. Mom had always loved philosophy and kept several copies of various translations from the various greats, including Seneca the Younger. I'd ended up browsing through them a lot after she died, hoping to feel a bit closer to her memory, and I ended up enjoying them.

They were interesting, shut up.

"Exactly, Mistress." Iustitia agreed. "Now, choose your Job."

Smiling, I reached inside my hoodie and pulled out a flip-mirror I'd found in a second-hand shop. It had been donated because it had a scratch across the cover, which I thought was just a plain waste. It was still perfectly good for its intended purpose. People could be so wasteful at times…

Flipping it open, I ran a finger down it and waited as my status screen appeared. Following Iustitia's instructions, I tapped the 'Job' name and a new set of words appeared.

 **Available Jobs:**

 **\- Fighter**

 **\- Soldier**

 **\- Swordsman**

 **\- Duelist**

 **\- Academic**

I raised my eyebrows at the last one. That was probably from my status as a student at Winslow.

"You have a good selection." Iustitia remarked as I read through the list aloud. "I would advise against Duelist; they use thinner, lighter blades than my First Form. Fighter…that's more of a 'jack of all trades, master of none' job that isn't really useful for anything but getting other jobs. Soldier will be useful once I gain other forms, but as you only have my First Form available, I would say Swordsman would be the best bet choice for you to start with."

I nodded absently in agreement. She was the one who knew the most about these jobs and her reasoning was logical. So I quickly tapped on the Swordsman tab.

 **[Congratulations!]**

 **You acquired the [Sword Mastery] Passive Skill!**

 **You have levelled up!**

 **You are now a Swordsman (LV1)**

 **You gain +50 HP!**

 **You gain +500 Stamina!**

 **You gain +5 Strength!**

 **You gain +5 Toughness!**

 **You gain +5 Endurance!**

 **You gain the [Blade Charge] Skill!**

 **You gain the [Swordsman's Eye] Skill!**

 **You gain the [First Health Boost] Passive Skill!**

The ache of my sore muscles seemed to wash away as the new job locked itself into place. Whew! What a _rush_! I checked my status again and smiled.

 **Name: Taylor Hebert**

 **Gender: Female**

 **Level: 1**

 **Title: None**

 **Job (s): (LV1) Swordsman (LV1)**

 **EXP: 13/150**

 **Embryo: Maiden of Justice Iustitia**

 **Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms**

 **Embryo Forms Achieved: 1/7**

 **Stats**

 **HP: 250**

 **STA: 1500**

 **MP: 155**

 **Strength: 17**

 **Toughness: 15**

 **Endurance: 17**

 **Intelligence: 20**

 **Wisdom: 15**

 **Luck: ?**

I felt my lips turn downward into a frown as I hummed in thought. Something did not look right…oh yeah, my HP was too high.

Wait, wasn't one of my new skills called **[First Health Boost]**?

As it turned out, I was right. **[Blade Charge]** was a Swordsman's basic Attack Skill that was a powerful stab while **[Swordsman's Eye]** allowed me to predict the movements of my enemies slightly, currently at a couple of seconds in advance. **[First Health Boost]** did exactly what it said on the tin and boosted my HP by fifty. It was a skill that levelled up as my Swordsman Job did, so the boost would increase over time.

"Well Mistress, this is looking promising." Iustitia said, clearly pleased. "Do you want to try out your new skills?"

I thought it was a good idea, so I did. Iustitia changed back into the Sword and Scales of Justice and I grabbed her two forms. It turned out each item contained one of her First Form's skills, and I had to hold it aloft to activate that skill. The Sword contained **[Justice is Blind]** and the Scales held **[Balance the Scales]**.

"So, how do I use **[Blade Charge]**?" I asked my Embryo.

"Simply mentally designate a target and utter the name." she answered, her voice seemingly whispering in my ear through our connection. "With practice you will merely need to will it to activate, but like all things that will take time and practice milady."

A target…right. I looked around the warehouse and spotted a barrel that was lying on its side. Righting it, I double-checked that it was empty before taking a ready stance a couple of meters away.

" **[Blade Charge]!** " I said firmly as I mentally designated the old barrel as a target. I found myself leaping forwards, my blade drawn back. When I came within striking range of the barrel, the Sword of Justice shot out and pierced through the barrel's center.

"Christ." I said as I jerked my sword out of the barrel. I ended up having to use my foot as a lever to pull it out. "No _way_ can I use this against people unless they're a regenerator."

"I see your point, but what of the one you call Hookwolf? He would resist it quite well." Iustitia pointed out.

I blanched. "I _really_ hope I don't run into him for a good long while, Iustitia. Hookwolf's _only_ avoided a Kill Order because he's had other people rein him in before he goes too far. He's vicious and ruthless."

Seriously, the man was an ex-pit fighter who could change into animals made out of steel blades and hooks. Until I was Level 100 _at least_ , I didn't want to get close to him. Or Stormtiger. Or Kaiser. Or…OK, most of the higher-ranked members of the E88. And Lung. And Oni Lee.

Urgh. _Why_ did Brockton Bay have so many damned villains?

"Master, we had better start heading home." My Embryo said. "It's almost six."

"Crap." Dad was due home late today, but I still had dinner to make. Maybe I should just order takeout and pick it up on the way?

Returning Iustitia to my Crest, I pulled on my gloves so no one would see it. My Embryo didn't like it much but agreed that such an easily identifiable mark should not be shown off.

Walking back home, I noticed that familiar prickle of my **[Danger Sense]** skill acting up. Looking around, I could see that the streets were almost deserted. What the hell? It's almost never like this in the Bay, especially not at this time!

' _Master, ahead!_ ' Iustitia called out in my mind. My eyes snapped towards the front from their roving and I saw…

…a rainbow-colored hooded robe? What the hell?

"Hello there, young girl." A male voice said from the robe. It wasn't a robe, now I came to look at it properly. It was a man wearing a robe. He turned around and I saw the half-face mask he was wearing. Oh hell. A Cape!

"Who are you?" I asked. "What's going on?"

I was sweating nervously, but was ready to fight if needed. Iustitia was ready and waiting to activate her First Form on my mental command.

"I? I am merely an actor on the stage of life." The masked man bowed. "But if you wish for a label for this _dramatis persona_ , then do call me Hamelin."

My mind kicked up at that. Some Capes chose names that matched their powers, while others didn't. Armsmaster was rumoured to have picked his name out of a hat. In this case though, I had a feeling that this guy had chosen this name for a reason.

"As in the Pied Piper of Hamelin?" I asked for confirmation.

"Ah, so you've heard the story before. How lovely, children these days tend to be _so_ uneducated." Hamelin chuckled and reached into the sleeve of his robe, drawing out a flute. "Enter the world of Hamelin, child, and grow."

Before I could do anything, he put his flute to his lips and played a quick three notes. A yellow cage snapped into place around me once the notes were finished.

"What the…?!"

Hamelin then played several longer notes and I was swallowed up by darkness. I was floating, somehow, and then I was landing on my butt as the darkness receded.

"Ow!" I groaned woozily, my head feeling like I'd just been thrown through the air by an angry Alexandria. Looking around, I saw that I seemed to be in a tunnel made from a natural cave of some kind. Had I been teleported somewhere? Mover/Shaker rating there. Definitely a Shaker rating for the energy cage as well. Then again, maybe the flute was Tinker-tech?

"Mistress, are you OK?!" Iustitia asked worriedly, snapping me out of my dazed musings.

"I'm fine, Iustitia." I said, getting up and dusting myself off. "Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know…" the Maiden of Justice answered.

"Well, if his name is anything to go by, we are either somewhere he's prepared beforehand on Earth Bet, or we're in a pocket dimension he controls." I theorized.

"Oh…the Pied Piper of Hamelin…I see." Iustitia said in realization.

The Pied Piper had lured an infestation of rats from the town of Hamelin using his flute and then drowned them in a river. When the town refused to pay him, he had taken all of their children into an opening in a mountain, never to be seen again. If he had named himself Hamelin based on that last portion of the legend, it would make sense, not to mention the musical component he seemed to need to activate it.

If he _did_ need the music to activate it. For all I knew it could just be a prop. Anyway, the important thing to do was to find a way out of here. Sitting on my ass in this kind of situation wasn't going to get me anywhere.

"Should I come out, Mistress?" Iustitia asked.

"Not yet." I replied. "We don't know if we're being watched or monitored somehow. Last thing we need is to advertise the fact I'm a Cape to anyone else here. Without a good enough reason anyway."

"Will there be other people here, Mistress?" the Maiden of Justice asked.

"In the original tale, the Pied Piper took every child aside from three from a town. A hundred and thirty of them." I informed her in a low voice as I went left and started walking. "Also, I doubt that he started with me. The streets were deserted for a while before he found me. I'd guess that he's been hunting kids for a while."

After all, why would he go out of his way to capture _me_? My Dad was only important as the Union Representative and Spokesman of the Dockworker's Association, and that was pretty much it. As one of a series of seemingly unrelated kidnappings though? That made a lot more sense.

We were both silent for a while as I walked through the tunnels. They were seemingly without end and just as deserted as the Boat Graveyard. It had been about…ten minutes (it was really hard to tell in a place like this) since I had arrived when I suddenly heard the sound of something large running in my direction.

"Iustitia, be ready to deploy into First Form." I said tensely.

"At your command Mistress."

Seconds later, out of the darkness came a monster of a rat. It was the size of a Labrador at least and had foam frothing from its mouth. And, had I forgotten to mention that it was charging at me like a bat out of hell?

"Now!" I ordered and in a flash, Iustitia's Sword and Scales of Justice were in my hands. I held up the scales.

" **[Balance the Scales]!** " I ordered and the scales shifted. They went off-balance for a moment before snapping back into a level balance, releasing a wave of semi-transparent energy that flowed outward, striking the giant rat head-on. It stumbled for a moment before resuming its charge, but I could tell that it was having more trouble moving than before.

Raising Iustitia's sword form, I designated my target and shouted. " **[Blade Charge]!** "

Exactly the same as last time, I leapt forward smoothly and buried my sword into the gut of the rat, which had reared up to try and claw at me. I reacted on automatic and twisted the sword around, ripping it out through the side of the monster's chest before jumping back as it tried to snap at me in a frothing panic.

The monstrous rodent thrashed about for moment longer, letting out a loud, keening shriek but seemingly unable to truly move. Then it fell to the ground, its limbs no longer able to support itself and, after a few more violent twitches and spasms, fell still and silent.

 **[Victory!]**

 **You have defeated a Giant Rat of Hamelin (LV3)! You earn 75 EXP!**

I let out a tired sigh as my body shuddered in disgust. That had not been pleasant. Seeing something die like that, even a monstrous rodent, was not a sight I could see anyone sane enjoying.

"Master, tap me on the head of the beast." Iustitia said, her voice surprisingly upbeat and pleased despite our grisly work. "I'll gather your loot for you."

Nodding, I gingerly tapped the tip of Iustitia's sword form on the head of the rat. It glowed for a moment before vanishing, along with the blood on the Sword of Justice.

 **Loot from Giant Rat of Hamelin:**

 **\- [Rat Fur Half-Face Mask]**

 **\- $10.00**

"Iustitia…?" I said slowly.

"I can… _influence_ what you get as loot a bit if you do the tap-method." She admitted. "You need a costume, a mask at the very least, so I...tweaked the drop."

"That's…actually good." I said with a sigh. "Just…next time, a bit of warning, ok?"

"Yes, Mistress." Iustitia promised.

Sighing again, I pulled my mirror out and scrolled through my screens until I found the inventory. I had a look at the mask.

 **[Rat Fur Half-Face Mask]**

 **-A basic mask made of rat fur. Conceals the user's identity at a glance. Adds +1 to all damage.-**

It was basic, but I'd take what I could get. Equipping it was as easy as the push of a button. It was nice and soft on my face, which was something, and I think it actually looked good on me.

Even better, you couldn't tell it was made from a giant rat; instead it just looked like a grey half-mask made from woven fur.

Grinning, I returned Iustitia to my Crest and continued down the tunnel.

Less than five minutes later another giant rat charged me from the darkness, seemingly identical to the one that came before.

I quickly killed it, the experience slightly less horrifying than before, and ended up leveling up to a Level 2 Swordsman, which gave me stat boosts similar to my first level, sans the Stamina. According to Iustitia I only got a Stamina boost every ten levels. Skills were similar, coming every so often dependent on what they did. I was almost certain to get another Attack Skill at Level 3, so that was something to look forward to.

"Seriously, is this _entire place_ one long tunnel?" I complained as I tapped the third Giant Rat I'd killed today to retrieve the loot it held. By this point, I'd earned $30 and a **[Rat Fur Cowled Cape]**. It was grey fur cloak and 'raised the level of the **[Cameleoline]** skill' (basically giving me the skill while I was wearing it to boot), allowing me to fade into the background if I wasn't moving, so long as I was wearing it with the hood up. Once I earned enough EXP in the skill, it would go up to Level 2, meaning I'd have learned it at Level 1.

There were some advantages to having powers that were like a video game, including the ability to game the system.

This time, I got some **[Rat Skin Leather Armour]** , which took the form of a thick grey leather shirt with a reinforced chestplate. It added a nice armour bonus to my arms and torso, which was nice. A few of those talons had come a _little_ too close for comfort, and didn't want to think about the kind of stuff that would come from one of those things biting me.

"Master, I think you should have a rest." Iustitia said worriedly. "You're down to barely five hundred Stamina."

"OK." It would be a Very Bad Thing if I came across a giant rat while exhausted and without any Stamina to activate my attack skill, so taking a small break to recover my Stamina was a good idea. I sat down, pulled my hood up and wrapped my cloak around me as I rested and regenerated my Stamina.

Not only would it keep me safer in case a Rodent of Unusual Size or some other unpleasantness came by, but it would also get me closer to gaining **[Cameleoline]** as a true skill rather than relying on my cloak.

I stilled even more as I heard voices, the first human voices I'd heard since I'd been dragged into this crazy place nearly a half-hour ago. They were a mix of male and female, a group of at least five if I was hearing them right.

"-I'm _telling_ you this place is a giant loop!" one male voice insisted.

"Clock, that's unlikely." Another male voice, slightly higher-pitched than the first, countered.

"Why, Kid? We got zapped here, wherever 'here' is, by a weirdo doing a Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat impression and you _really_ think that a tunnel in a donut shape is unlikely?" 'Clock' countered.

"How would this place've been built then?" 'Kid' challenged. "We've been watching the walls and haven't seen any sign of a doorway of any sort, nor are any of them curved horizontally. It makes no sense for this place to be a 'giant donut' Clock."

"Urgh, can you two _please_ be quiet?" a younger female voice groaned. "Your argument about this is stupid."

"Sorry, Vista." Kid apologized.

Holy shit. The Wards. Hamelin had kidnapped the fucking _Protectorate Wards!_

The sound of feet stopped at Vista's order. "Wait. I can sense someone here."

"What are you, Spiderman now?" Clock asked skeptically.

I could barely see the petit form of Vista at the head of the Wards. Gallant, Clockblocker, Kid Win and Aegis were all right behind. No sign of former vigilante Shadow Stalker though.

"My powers are Manton Limited, Clock." The Shaker retorted. "If I can't use them in an area within my range, it means that something organic and alive is there."

"Oh."

"I can sense someone too." The large armoured form of Gallant spoke up, his helmeted head homing in onto the general area where I'd been resting/hiding. "Whoever it is, they're human and not hostile."

"Excuse me, could you come out?" Aegis asked politely. "We're the ENE Wards."

Well hell, this was a fine predicament.

' _Iustitia, only speak telepathically to me unless I order you aloud._ ' I sent to her.

' _Understood, Mistress._ '

Letting out a deep breath, I steeled my nerves and stood up, making the Wards jump in surprise. To them, it must have looked like I melted out of the wall.

" _Holy-!_ "

"Clockblocker!"

"The 'Joseph Impersonator' you were referring to is called Hamelin, Clockblocker." I informed the Ward. "As in the Pied Piper of Hamelin."

Kid Win palmed his mask. "Of _course_. That explains the flute. Urgh, I'm an idiot."

Gallant nodded to me. "Nice to meet you…?"

"Call me…Justitia." I said with a small smile. "How long have you guys been here?"

"About two hours." Aegis answered. "We've been walking for most of that."

"Have you met any of the crazy bastard's 'pets' yet?"

"Nooooo…why, have you?" Clockblocker asked.

"Three giant rats the size of Labradors that apparently wanted to eat my face." I answered dryly.

Vista's face, the parts I could see anyway, blanched. "Christ."

"Tell me about it." I grumbled. "I've only been here for about half an hour. Aren't you missing someone?"

"Stalker was on Console Duty today." Kid Win said. "We were on a visit to a mall when this Hamelin guy walks up, plays a flute and the next thing we know, here we are."

"Were any of the Protectorate around?" I asked with a frown.

"Triumph, Battery, and a couple of PRT Troopers." Vista answered.

"I wonder how he managed to get away from them?" I wondered. Triumph (whose power was basically a sonic cannon scream) would have been simple to escape from if Hamelin was prepared, but Battery's power granted her bursts of super speed and strength, it would be difficult to get away from her unless Hamelin had a Mover power of his own.

"Less important than finding our way out of here." Aegis interrupted. "Justitia, care to join us to break out of this place?"

I blinked at the somewhat corny offer. "Um…sure." I nodded. "I just came from over there though, so we'd have to walk half an hour just to arrive at where I came in."

I nodded in the direction the Wards had been walking to make my point.

"Well, we've covered everything back there for the last two hours, so your old direction's a better one than ours." Clockblocker shrugged.

"Fair point." I shrugged before walking over to them.

"Just to know, what's your power, aside from your Stranger power?" Aegis asked.

"It's a power Trumped into the cloak, actually." I corrected. "My actual power is...well…Iustitia, First Form."

"Yes Mistress." My Embryo answered and the Sword and Scales of Justice appeared in my hands.

"Whoa…!" Vista gave the impression that her eyes were wide open, despite the opaque visor she wore.

"Nice." Clockblocker said appreciatively.

"That…" Gallant sounded as if he were frowning. "I can sense emotions from them."

I blinked. "You're an empath?"

"Yeah, not as flashy as my emotion blasts, but it has its uses." he answered.

"Oh. Makes sense." I nodded. "OK then…Iustitia, Maiden Form."

"Yes, Mistress."

In a flash, the little Maiden of Justice was standing next to me. "Greetings. I am Mistress Justitia's Embryo, Maiden of Justice Iustitia." she introduced herself, curtsying slightly.

There was silence at this. Then Vista glomped Iustitia. "So cute!"

"Does she do that a lot?" I asked in bemusement.

"Any time anything adorable, fluffy or cute is involved." Aegis answered dryly. "So…Mistress?"

"Master/Shaker/Trump." I explained. "She's a projection, albeit a sentient and semi-independent one, which can manifest her own abilities or transform into an alternate form with different abilities. I also have the ability to quantify and improve my physical and mental abilities in numeric form."

"Wait…like an _RPG?!_ " Kid Win looked at me sounding shocked.

"Basically." I confirmed. Then, I froze as I heard the sound of running clawed feet. "Iustitia, First Form!"

In a flash, my sword and scales were back in my hand. Turning, I found another giant rat, this one the size of a Great Dane, charging directly towards us.

"God!" Vista squeaked in disgust.

"What the hell?!" Kid Win pulled a laser pistol from somewhere.

"I'll handle it." I said and held up the scales. " **[Balance the Scales]!** "

Once again, the scales shifted and then rebalanced. The by-now familiar wave of semi-transparent energy washed out of the instrument and struck the rat, making it stumble for a moment, more than long enough for me to dash in and used **[Blade Charge]** to deal a critical blow. A few quick follow-up strikes and the rat fell dead to the ground.

"Oh god…!" someone started heaving behind me. Dammit.

I quickly tapped the tip of Iustitia's sword on the head of the rat, making it and the pooling blood vanish.

"You're pretty hardcore, you know that?" Clockblocker stated mildly, though he was leaning back a bit.

"They're not real animals, they're just projections or bio-mutants or something created by the crazy person who kidnapped us. I just have to keep repeating 'they're not real' over and over again and it stops being a problem." I said, trying to keep my emotions out of my voice, no way was I showing how close I was to freaking out over this. "In either case, killing them is necessary. They won't stop attacking unless you put them down for good. I've tried scaring them off, but they just don't stop."

Gallant stepped forward and put an armored hand on my shoulder. Oh right, empath. God damn it.

"Noted." Kid Win gulped, but snapped a switch on the side of his laser pistol. "Lethal mode online."

"I thought Armsmaster had to authorize that?" Gallant asked nervously.

"Our link to the Console is gone." The young Tinker shrugged. "Armsmaster set things up so that, if that happened without a signal from him beforehand, I could access the lethal mode. Emergency procedure in case of sudden, unexpected attacks."

Damn. No reinforcements coming to the rescue from the Protectorate then.

We all started walking down the tunnel in silence before Aegis spoke up again.

"Justitia, what was that ability you used against that rat?"

"It's…well, a Shaker power that lowers the physical abilities of anything caught within ten meters to match my own." I answered. "Or raise them."

"Huh?"

"The name of the power is **[Balance the Scales]**. That means the power's purpose is to equalize the abilities, the physical ones at least, between me and my enemies." I explained. "Either they get lowered to my level if they're stronger than me, or they get raised up to my level is they're weaker than me."

"That's…pretty scary." Clockblocker remarked. "What kind of tests have you done with it?"

"None. I've only used it four times, including just a moment ago." I answered. "Heck, I wasn't even in costume when Hamelin up and kidnapped me. Hell, it hasn't been a full day since I realized I HAD powers!"

"Holy fuck." Aegis swore. "This guy's breaking the Unwritten Rules, going after a Cape out of costume like that!"

"I'm more worried about what him going after us in particular means." I put in with a frown.

"Whaddya mean?" Clockblocker gave me a confused look.

"This guy's modelled himself after the Pied Piper, which means that, more than likely, he's going to be targeting kids. And if the lot of us are any example, he's also only targeting Capes as well." I stated, my mind buzzing as I put two and two together. "Following that logically, he could be going after Shadow Stalker, Glory Girl, Panacea, Shielder and maybe Laserdream too."

"Aw fuck!" Gallant groaned. "We should have thought of that."

"He didn't go after Triumph and he just left the Wards a year or so ago, so he can't be older than twenty." Aegis said thoughtfully. "I think that eighteen's the limit of this guy's criteria. Laserdream should be safe as she just turned nineteen not long ago."

"Any other teen Capes in the Bay?" I asked.

"Rune from the Empire is definitely in the age limit and the entirety of the Undersiders as well." Kid Win volunteered. "I think that Parian is also under 18 but I'm not sure about that. Unless any more fresh Triggers like you are targeted, Justitia, that should be everyone from the Bay that could be or come here."

"Great. A pacifist, Ms. Hitler Youth, and the Masters of Escape." Clockblocker shook his head. "Not useful to get out of this place."

"It isn't like a healer, shadow-Breaker, Alexandria-type and a forcefield user are going to do much either." Vista pointed out, before looking curiously at me. "How'd he even know you were a cape Justitia? You said you weren't even in costume when he found you."

"I've got two theories." I responded thoughtfully, the question had been bothering me as well. "First is that he saw me practicing with my powers, but I don't think that's likely. I was using a derelict warehouse in the docks and it was completely deserted. Unless he's got a Stranger power I would have noticed someone else in there. The other option is that he's got some kind of Cape-Detection power and he just grabbed me when it noticed me."

"So either a Stranger or Thinker power, some sort Mover/Shaker teleportation power, and whatever he used to make those rat things and get away from the Triumph and Battery." Kid Win listed off in frustration. "Just what kind of grab-bag power does this Hamelin guy have!?"

"He also used some kind of energy cage when he grabbed me." I added, getting a groan from Kid Win. "I'm starting to think he's some kind of Tinker. Both times he used his powers on me he was playing that flue of his, was it the same for you guys?'

"Yeah." agreed Aegis, rubbing his chin in thought. "He just waltzed up, playing that thing and then we were all dragged here. So you think that flue is Tinkertech?"

"Either that or some kind of control device." I agreed with a nod.

Our conversation was suddenly and violently derailed as a loud, angry, female roar rippled down the tunnel from the direction we were heading. It was a well-known sound to those who lived in Brockton Bay, belonging to the resident Alexandria-with-a temper.

Gallant said it best as we started racing in the direction of the shout.

"Vicky!"


	3. Session 1-3

**Author's Note: So here we are in lovely 2019! I do hope you all had a lovely X-Mas and New Year! Here is chapter 3 of Justice for All and I hope you enjoy it.**

 **On another note, another of my ficlets has been adopted, and has been for a while, actually. The ficlet is 'My Body is the Shield', which makes me pretty happy. The guy who picked it up is Tale Swapper and he posts it exclusively on Significant Velocity under the title of 'Rising of the Shield Heroine' so please go over and check it out!**

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.3**

The sound of a raging Glory Girl quickly drew our group down the tunnels. As we got closer new sounds were quickly added to the chorus, first high-pitched chittering squeaks and shrieks that obviously came from the rodent denizens of this abyss and the loud echoing sounds of powerful impacts smashing said rodents across the room.

"She must be under attack by those giant rats." I decided to state the obvious.

"That wouldn't make her this angry." Gallant countered sharply, sounding worried. "Shit, something must have happened to Panacea!"

Abruptly, the tunnel ended and widened into a cavern. On one side of it was a girl dressed in a white princess-like outfit with a short skirt, a tiara and a cape. Slumped against the wall behind her was a shorter figure in a white costume with a red cross on it. It was also stained with blood. The look of utter _rage_ on Glory Girl's face was almost frightening to see.

Surrounding the two Dallon sisters were several large rats. There were also the pulverized remains of several other giants rats scattered about, obviously the raging Alexandria-type hadn't been idle while we were rushing to help.

"Shit, I hate being right." The armoured empath growled. "Kid, Justitia, go!"

Not needing any encouragement, Kid Win and I charged in. With a thought, Iustitia silently redeployed into her **Sword and Scales** form as I rushed toward the center of the rat horde. The Tinker on his hoverboard fired several blasts from his laser pistol that killed one of the oversized rodents instantly and injured two more, forcing them back and giving me room to move as I finally reached a point where my ability could reach all the gathered enemies without touching the Wards.

" **[Balance the Scales]!** " I ordered. The blast of light from my scales struck every giant rat nigh simultaneously before I used **[Blade Charge]** to slice into an injured rat and then whirl and behead another.

With a whoop of relief at the reinforcements, Glory Girl started punching more enthusiastically at her enemies. Between the three of us, the floor of the cavern was soon littered with smashed, cut, and flambéed rat corpses.

"Sis!" the flying girl swept down to kneel next to who I had to assume had to Panacea.

"Vicky, what happened?" Gallant asked as he ran over.

"This robed bastard showed up while I was picking Amy up from the hospital and sent us here, wherever _here_ is, with a flute." The blond girl snarled. "That was about ten minutes ago. We got ambushed by those mutant rat things just a few minutes ago. She got bit on the shoulder by one of them before I tore it off and started sending them flying."

I walked over and knelt next to her and peered at the wound on the world's greatest healer. I was no doctor but even I could tell that it was really bad, particularly since I could see bone. "She's losing too much blood. Iustitia, Maiden Form. Use **[The People's Welfare is Supreme]**."

"Yes Mistress." My Embryo transformed into her form as a little girl, although I quickly noticed her appearance seemed to have aged a couple years since the last time I saw her. She clasped her hands, bowed her head and started glowing white.

"What the…?" Glory Girl stepped forwards, but stopped when Aegis raised a hand.

"Justitia, what's your projection doing?" he asked calmly.

"It's one of Iustitia's abilities. **[The People's Welfare is Supreme]** is a healing power that heals everyone within a couple of meters of her. Unfortunately it's not instantaneous like Panacea's power, but it should be able to heal her in a few minutes." I answered. Something I left out was that it was slowly draining my Stamina gauge in order to work. If it depleted fully, I'd be knocked out. Fortunately, I'd levelled up during that fight, so my Stamina had shot back up to full. I should have enough to heal Panacea.

"Whoa…it's working." Clockblocker put in, pointing as the wound on the healer's shoulder slowly sealed itself shut.

"Seriously? From _nothing_?" Kid Win said, clearly in awe.

"It isn't from nothing." Iustitia spoke up, sounding rather insulted. "My Mistress is utilizing her own life force and channeling it through me in order to supply energy for my skill. She will barely be able to move for a period of time once we are done."

I winced. "Iustitia…no giving away the secrets and weaknesses of my powers without permission."

"They had to know, Mistress. Otherwise you would have been forced to move while completely bereft of energy and unable to defend yourself."

Stubborn little…

"So she's using her own energy up to heal people…OK then. That makes a bit more sense." The Tinker nodded, seemingly happy that I wasn't _totally_ abusing the Law of Conservation of Energy.

"Will you be able to walk after your projection is finished healing?" Aegis asked.

" _Her_ name is Iustitia. _Use it_." I told him flatly as I sat against the wall and wrapped my cloak around me, vanishing from their sight. "To answer your question, yes, but if you want me to be more than baggage if we get attacked by more of those mutants, let me rest for a while after she's finished."

"You have a sword projection that changes into a little girl that heals AND a Stranger power that lets you vanish from sight?" Glory Girl raised an eyebrow. "Who the heck _are_ you?"

"Justitia, a newly Triggered Parahuman who was kidnapped out of costume by Hamelin. Nice to meet you, Glory Girl." I said flippantly. "You two are the newest members of the Hamelin Kidnapped Persons Association, so what's been happening since the Wards and I got sent here?"

A lot, it seemed. Apparently, Hamelin had slipped the noose that the PRT and Protectorate had tried to throw around him after he zapped the Wards. After the point that I had gone missing (unknown to Glory Girl), Hamelin had led Velocity on a merry chase through the Docks, having a power that let him outpace anyone who chased him. Seriously, he was one hell of a grab bag Cape, as in he had grabbed the bag and ran with it!

The Wards then filled her in on everything that had happened to them since they had entered Hamelin's World, as Clockblocker had dubbed our current prison.

"Uuuuhhh….Vicky?" a groggy voice groaned as Iustitia's healing light vanished. Panacea was awake.

"Ames!" Vicky beamed and I could feel her aura pushing onto my mind.

"Vicky, aura." Gallant said in a way that told me he'd done it a dozen times before.

"Oops." Glory Girl winced and the pressure on my mind vanished.

After Amy Dallon was caught up to speed and introduced to me, we rested for a quarter of an hour (thank god for Kid Win's visor-mounted clock) before continuing on.

"Soo…what's with the odd power?" Glory Girl asked bluntly as we walked…well, I walked, she floated. Stupid fliers living the dream while we groundling are forced to walk.

"My Mistress received me as a power because of the path she sought." Iustitia answered for me.

"I don't follow." The famously called 'Alexandria Junior' said with a tilt of her head.

"My Mistress knows _exactly_ who is responsible for torturing her into Triggering." My Embryo revealed. "Were she a lesser person she would have asked for vengeance. If that was the case, I would have developed and emerged as Nemesis, Maiden of Retribution. If she were a more cowardly person, I would have become Pax, Maiden of Peace. If she was a short-sighted person, I would be Maat, Maiden of Truth. My Mistress rose above all of those and had the desire for Justice over Vengeance, for action over inaction and for results instead of words. I have lived as part of my Mistress for a full month, Glory Girl, and I know all she knows. I know who my partner is as a person on a level even she does not and I am more proud of her than I can put in to words, because she chose the higher path."

There was silence as the Wards and the younger generation of New Wave digested this.

"And she's a part of your power?" Panacea asked in disbelief.

"I've only had her awake for a day." I defended. "I haven't had time to get her to not drop conversational nukes like that."

"So wait…you really were plainclothes when you were kidnapped?" Glory Girl frowned. "Where'd the costume come from then?"

"Part of my power kinda turns me into something like a MMORPG character." I admitted. "I have levels, jobs and stats. I also get loot from defeated enemies. I have no idea if I have to kill them to get loot or not, but my gut is currently telling me no. Anyway, I collect it by tapping the corpses with Iustitia's sword form. She altered it so I'd get a costume out of it. Two seconds…"

I pulled out my mirror and ran through the screens to equip my new **[Rat Skin Leather Boots]** , **[Rat Skin Breeches]** and **[Rat Skin Belt]**. This completed the set for me and granted me slightly increased stats while I wore the whole set.

"Shit on a stick."

"Vicky!" Panacea scolded on reflex.

"Let the loot come naturally from here on out, Iustitia." I told my partner. "Unless it's bones and skin and stuff."

"Roger that, Mistress." Iustitia nodded.

"Can you lay off the Mistress thing? It feels weird to hear a twelve-year old call me that." I said with a sigh.

"You are my Mistress, Mistress."

I mask-palmed.

"Seriously, how big is this place?" Vista complained after five more minutes. "I mean, I think that Justitia's right and this place is a dimensional pocket of some sort, but how can one Parahuman maintain such a large space like this? It's nuts! He'd have to be stronger than Eidolon to do this!"

"I haven't a clue." Aegis admitted. "Kid, insights?"

"I'm just as stumped. Dimensional stuff isn't my specialty…hell, I don't even know _what_ my specialty is, but it isn't dimensional manipulation." The young Tinker answered, scratching at the side of his helmet in confusion.

"It could have already existed." I offered up hesitantly.

"What?" Clockblocker asked skeptically.

"No, listen. If the pocket already existed in some way before Hamelin triggered, it could be that all he's doing is linking with it with his powers and altering the insides to suit his desires." I said, letting my thoughts babble a bit. "Considering how many Tinkers have been alive, there has had to have been at least _one_ who specialised in dimensional theory or creating pocket dimensions or something like that at some point."

"Ten that I can think of off the top of my head." Kid Win stated slowly. "About another fifteen others worldwide that were suspected of it before either dying or being Zized." When I gave him a curious look, he simply shrugged "I've studied a lot of other Tinkers work, hoping to get a clue on what my specialty is. So far it hasn't helped, but I've got some neat trivia out of it."

"That isn't including any other Parahumans who could have created this with…I dunno, a Shaker effect?" Vista chipped in. Judging from the body language and the way she looked at me, she was impressed.

"Okay, so …just to be clear here, he _isn't_ a godlike Cape, merely one who is _insanely powerful_ enough to manipulate a dimensional pocket of this size?" Clockblocker sighed. "You really haven't lowered the bar by much."

"Suck it up." I shot back, trying to sound confident. "We're going to have to confront this guy in order to get out of here in all likelihood, so stop making demons in your mind about him and start walking."

"Jeez, you're as big a hardass as Halbeard." He complained.

"That's Armsmaster, not Halbeard." Aegis said in a censuring tone.

"Yeah, yeah, it isn't as if he's here to hear me…"

"Is he always like this?" I asked Panacea in a bit of disbelief.

"No…ordinarily, he takes one piece of possible innuendo and runs with it all day until he's flogged a dead horse into mincemeat." The healer replied dryly.

"I resent that!" said flogger responded petulantly.

"So…he gets _worse_?!" I shudder to think of the possibility.

"Now you're just being hurtful!"

"Oh yes. Then Vista has to spatially slap him into submission."

" _Oi!_ Ow!"

"Just like that, actually."

I had to admit, seeing the Wards as themselves rather than the posing heroic figures on TV and at press conferences was…nice. Odd, but nice. It made them real people rather than caricatures that were popped out by the PR Department of the PRT.

The air turned tense again when a female scream, this time one of pain, rent the air. I didn't recognise the source, nor did anyone around me, but we all sped up into a run as soon as we heard it.

At the end of the tunnel was the entryway into a large cavern. Wide enough that the bay of Brockton Bay could have fitted into it comfortably, with room to spare, and high enough to fit the Capitol Building from spire to lowermost foundation. Dotted about the place were the remains of buildings of all types; wooden cabins, corrugated iron warehouses, brick houses and even what looked like the toppled remains of a high-rise apartment building. In around about the center were four crosses with figures tied to them. Floating around the surface of the cavern were several screens of some sort, each the size of the trailer of an eighteen-wheeler, all of which displayed several locations that I recognised in the Bay, as well as the John Hancock Tower in Boston, and Independence Hall, Philadelphia.

"Ohhhhh…so _that's_ how he does it." I breathed, understanding what was going on.

"Care to share with the class?" Clockblocker asked in a whisper.

"Those screens are Tinkertech, aren't they?" I hissed. "I'll just _bet_ that they let Hamelin teleport to anywhere that he has a picture of loaded into them, as well as back here."

"Teleport isn't the right word." Kid Win corrected me absently, eyes locked on the screens. " _Dimensionally shift_ would be the better term. But I agree. That's also how he got us into this…place…in the first place. He had us spread around so we'd be easier to pick off at his leisure, but apparently he forgot about Vista's space bending abilities. That let us travel faster than normal."

"Well, not many people outside of the PRT and Protectorate know exactly how powerful my Shaker abilities are, Kid." Vista said, with a shrug. "He could have taken my public profile as gospel."

Gallant, who had been silent up until this point, suddenly cursed. "Damn. The Undersiders've been crucified."

"What?!" I squeaked.

"Oh, not with nails and the like, but they _are_ hanging by their wrists from those crosses." The armoured hero said grimly. "Looks like someone kicked the crap out of them first too."

"Who are the Undersiders anyway?" I asked. "New kid on the block here."

"A gang of teenagers, we think, and this confirms it." Aegis explained. "Hellhound, Tattletale, Grue and Regent. They're villains, but they're small timers. Robberies, hit and run style. That's pretty much all they've done. Pretty low priority compared to the big three gangs of the Bay."

"They're out cold and look like they've been here for a while." Kid Win observed. It turned out both Gallant's armour and Kid's armour had a zoom function on their HUDs, which is why they could see so far into the cavern. "Think he went after them first?"

"Makes sense." Clockblocker said with nod. "None of them have any top tier powers. If he caught them off guard, they would've been zapped here before they could react. And if he made sure to exclude Hellhound's dogs, they would have been overwhelmed quickly by the rat monsters."

"But then…what brought them here?" I voiced the question that had been bugging me since Gallant had revealed their presence. "It would have taken quite some time to carry four teenagers, unconscious or not, here through the tunnels and tie them to those crosses. Unless Hamlin has other projections aside from those rats, he's been busy in the Bay for most of the day. So, I repeat, _how_ did they get here?"

"That's…yeah, that's a good point." Aegis nodded. "Clearly this Hamelin guy captured us for a reason, whatever it may be. I wonder if it's worth the Kill Order he's going to get for it."

"I hope they wait until we get out of here before they kill him." Kid Win said uneasily.

"Why?" Glory Girl asked in puzzlement.

"Because if he _has_ taken over someone else's dimensional pocket, then once he dies, it'll either pop out of existence completely or revert back to whatever it was before he took it over." The Tinker replied. "If it's the first, we will probably die. If it's the latter...we might wish we were dead. We could be absorbed into the structure of the dimension, still alive. Not pleasant."

"On that _cheerful_ note, let's find a way out of this place, _tout suite_." I remarked dryly, surprising a laugh out of some of the queasy Wards. We snuck into the cavern after that. It wasn't easy given the complete lack of cover aside from the sparse and widely dispersed buildings and none of us wanted to give them any chance to possibly collapse on us.

"Look at that one!" Vista hissed, pointing at one giant screen in particular. It was displaying the inside of a building…and it was also moving.

"A livestream of Hamelin's point of view?" I frowned. How on earth…?

"Oh crap…that's the Wards base under the PRT building!" Aegis cursed. "He's going after Shadow Stalker!"

"Would she be there?" I asked with a jolt of shock. Going after the Wards in broad daylight was one kind of crazy, but attacking the _PRT Building_ itself in order to kidnap one was on a whole other level of sheer nutso.

"Maybe. It is staffed by PRT troopers, and she'll have a guard on her with both us and the two most active members of New Wave being zapped away like we have been." Gallant answered. "Only safer place would be the Rig in the bay. No lone Parahuman would be stupid enough to attack the Rig when it has all of Armsmaster's Tinker tech defences in place and the rest of the Protectorate on standby."

"Just like no lone Parahuman would _dare_ kidnap the Wards and seven other teenaged Capes in the space of a single day?" Clockblocker asked pointedly. "Whoever Hamelin is, he's as ballsy as he is batsy. He does what no one expects because it would be foolish, and yet he manages to do it. That moment of surprise is what took everyone here off guard and let him teleport -sorry, 'dimensionally shift'- us here."

"Actually, he caged me before shifting me here." I countered. "If he hadn't, I would have attacked him or run. Maybe…that's it! Maybe he can only 'shift' someone if they're standing still? Or relatively still at least."

"Shifting a moving target would be hideously complex compared to a stationary one. Or at least, targets moving outside of a predetermined pattern or series of coordinates." Kid Win agreed, his voice a bit distant as he stared into space. "With us, he had stationary targets, ditto for Glory Girl and Panacea. With you, well he might not have known what kind of power you had or how you'd react, so he threw up a cage to keep you contained, or at least…it could have been a cage…or even a soft light hologram to cause you to freeze up long enough for him to shift you."

I froze at that before groaning in realization. Hamelin had totally bluffed me, in all likelihood. I was feeling more than a little stupid for that. Urgh, tricked by a guy wearing a technicolor bedsheet. How embarrassing.

Setting aside my feelings of utter embarrassment, we made our way to the center of the cavern and the four figures who were crucified there. Two were girls and two were boys. One was wearing a purple and black costume with a purple domino mask while another wore a frilly, ruffled shirt like you'd see at a renaissance faire along with a mask with a mocking smile on it. The third wore rough clothes along with a dime store dog mask, while the last wore motorbike leathers and had a modified helmet rather than a mask. The light wasn't good enough for me to see what the mask looked like, however.

All of them were ragged, with cuts in their costumes and bruising on their visible skin. Not wounds from the rats, those nasty little bastards leapt in head first with their maws open. No, they had been beaten down by something, some _one_ , with intelligence and the knowledge of where to hit to disable, but not kill.

I should know; the Bitch Trio had made a point of hitting me where it would hurt but not be visible. Aside from the bruises on the arms, from blocking punches and the like I guessed, there were no visible bruise marks at all, aside from where the costumes were ripped.

"Shit. Panacea, can you heal them up so they don't bleed all over the place once we have to get out of here?" Aegis asked quietly.

"I can." The healer nodded. "I don't usually heal someone unless I have their permission to do so, but these are _very_ extenuating circumstances."

Unfortunately, the Wards had no knives or anything with which to cut the ropes that bound the Undersiders to the crosses. Something about minors wielding knives being bad PR.

"And _that's_ just one more reason I am never joining the Protectorate." I snorted. "PR shouldn't take precedence over practicality."

In the end, Aegis flew me up and I cut the teen villains down, Glory Girl catching them one at a time and lowering them to the ground. Panacea quickly healed them and then moved to the next.

"Right, let's go." Gallant said firmly. He'd been keeping an eye on the monitor that showed Hamelin's current location and he was in the middle of chasing Shadow Stalker through the PRT building's corridors. The former vigilante was shooting at him with crossbow quarrels that bounced off of some sort of personal forcefield that suddenly sprung up around the technicolor weirdo. Was he a Tinker, or did he know a Tinker?

We started to leave, only to hear the tell-tale sound of rats on the move, but there were a lot more of them than before. The sounds were coming from the tunnel on the other side of the cavern from us, but we wouldn't have much of a lead on them even if we booked it the whole way. Damn rats were fast bastards.

"Fuckburgers." Clockblocker said eloquently.

"Vista, get ready to twist space so we can run quickly." Aegis ordered. "Clock, you, me and Glory Girl grab the Undersiders."

Tattletale and Regent were skinny enough that Glory Girl could grab both of them, while Aegis threw Hellhound over his shoulder and Clockblocker grabbed Grue.

With that, we started running like hell.

"Why're the rats coming _now_?!" Vista grunted as we fled towards the exit we had entered from.

"Dunno." I answered with a gasp. "At a guess? He had some kind of all alarm on the Undersiders' crosses that went off as soon as we removed the first of them. That probably sent the damn monsters towards us."

"Less talking, more running!" Glory Girl shouted. I noticed that Panacea was starting to flag, so I grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me. Peeking over my shoulder, I saw a positive wave of the monsters emerging from the other tunnel. There had to be at least fifty of them and they all looked pissed as hell.

"Crap!" I cursed and added some extra speed into my feet from somewhere.

"They're going to catch us at this rate!" Kid called from his hoverboard.

"Make a stand in the tunnels!" I shouted back. "With the size of them, it should act as a bottleneck and keep them from overrunning us with sheer numbers!"

"Sounds good. We'll do it after we enter the tunnels and run for a couple of minutes." Aegis said flatly.

Even with Vista's space bending abilities, that would only give us a little while to set up.

' _Iustitia, any ideas?_ '

' _Sadly_ _no, mistress._ '

Well hell.

We ran until Aegis landed, then put the Undersiders, who were still unconscious, down and turned to face the direction that the giant rats were coming from.

"Justitia, can that Shaker power of yours affect all of the rat monsters that are coming at us?" Clockblocker asked nervously.

"It'll affect as many of them which are within ten meters of me the moment that I activate it." I answered steadily. "I also can't activate it again until all of the ones affected by it are either defeated or dead."

"Lovely. Well, just as long as they're all within ten meters of you, that's fine." The Wards' leader said with a nod. "Glory Girl, can you spot for her?"

"On it." The blond girl said and floated up. I deployed Iustitia in her sword and scales form and waited for the word to activate her power. In a manner of seconds, the sound of paws beating at the ground could be heard and the wave of giant rats could be seen charging at them in the distance.

"Kid, do you have any other weapons?" I asked steadily. "I kinda think that a pistol isn't going to cut it here."

"A rifle, but it isn't much more powerful than the pistol, and it doesn't have a lethal mode." The Tinker answered.

"Give it to Vista then. We need all the firepower we can get." I said as the ravening horde of rats drew closer. The Tinker nodded and handed his second weapon to the younger girl, who nodded in thanks.

"I found a Glock on Tattletale." Clockblocker volunteered. "Only one clip though."

"Use it sparingly." Gallant told him. "My emotional blasts won't work very well on the rats aside from the baser emotions, and no way am I gonna use anger on them. Heck, if they're projections, would my emotional blasts even do _anything_ to them?"

"Aside from the minor physical impact, squat." Aegis told the armoured hero. "Just use the armour to punch them. With the minor strength boost it gives you, it should do something."

Then they were almost upon us.

"Glory Girl…" I said with trepidation as the horde drew closer, only a few meters away.

"Not yet."

"Vicky, I think we can handle a few at full strength, so just give the all clear." Gallant said firmly.

"Spoilsport…OK, now!"

" **[Balance the Scales]!** " I shouted and the energy wave slammed into the incoming horde like a tsunami, weakening the rats down to my level of stats. That wasn't as bad as it had been a while back due to my level up, but it was enough that the Wards, plus Glory Girl, had a distinct physical advantage. Panacea kept back with the Undersiders and out of the line of fire.

Kid Win and Vista opened up with their laser weapons, with Kid Win's obviously being more effective, the red beams lancing out to strike various rats in the line, burning holes clear through them. Vista's rifle was less effective, the paler bolts it fired only impacting and sending rats flying back or into each other, but it still obviously hurt them. Yet still did they advance.

Gallant fired a blast of his own at one, but it did exactly nothing, just as Aegis predicted. Then Glory Girl and Aegis swooped in and started laying in to the horde of monsters. I joined them, swiping with my sword. I killed one and felt the warm tingling feeling that Iustitia informed me was the sign of a level up being stored until after combat.

The world turned into a whirling melee of sword, fang and claw. I was repeatedly thanking Iustitia in my mind for getting me my costume, as it prevented me from more than a few serious wounds from those blows I couldn't dodge or block in time. My **[Swordsman's Eye]** skill was also a lifesaver, as it gave me a few seconds of warning before the rats actually moved.

I must have killed five more rats before the rest finally seemed to develop a sense of self-preservation, breaking their mad charge and retreating back down the tunnel. There were at least twenty more on the ground, so the Wards, Glory Girl and I must have killed over half of the damn things.

Pulling my mirror out, I chose to level my **[Swordsman]** job again and then checked my stats.

 **Name:** **Taylor Hebert**

 **Cape** **Name:** **Justitia**

 **Gender:** **Female**

 **Level:** **4**

 **Title:** **None**

 **Job(s):** **(1) Swordsman (LV4)**

 **EXP:** **53/400**

 **Embryo:** **Maiden of Justice Iustitia**

 **Embryo** **Type:** **Maiden with Arms**

 **Embryo** **Forms** **Achieved:** **1/7**

 **Stats**

 **HP:** **400**

 **STA:** **1500**

 **MP:** **155**

 **Strength:** **32**

 **Toughness:** **30**

 **Endurance:** **32**

 **Intelligence:** **20**

 **Wisdom:** **15**

 **Luck:** **?**

Additionally, I gained two more swordsman skills, **[Blade Sweep]** and **[Sword Arts Proficiency]**. The first was another generic basic attack skill of the swordsman and was a powerful horizontal cut, while the other added extra damage to every attack made with a sword, any type of sword. This was in addition to the **[Sword Mastery]** Passive skill, which did pretty much the same, but capped at level ten.

Still, we weren't out of the woods yet. Those rats had only retreated and were still lurking around somewhere. Plus, we still had no idea how to get out of here.

' _Life's_ _certainly interesting._ ' I thought with a chuckle before going to gather the loot from the dead rats.


	4. Session 1-4

**Author's Note: Because I'm feeling generous, have an extra chapter.**

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.4**

In the aftermath of rescuing the Undersiders and fighting off a small horde of giant rats, the Wards, Glory Girl, Panacea and I did our best to rest. Iustitia went around and touched the corpses of the giant rats, dropping the loot and cash into my inventory.

I was exhausted from the constant fighting, and a couple of the Wards didn't look much better, let alone the beaten to hell Undersiders. We were literally in enemy territory, beaten, tired and without supplies. Oh, and there was the constant threat of being attacked by giant rats too. Plus, whatever the hell had attacked and beaten the shit out of the Undersiders, since I sincerely doubted the rats could do something like that.

They were more likely to rip someone apart than beat them senseless.

"Panacea, is there anything you can tell us about why the Undersiders are unconscious?" Aegis suddenly asked.

The healer raised an eyebrow at him. "They were beaten unconscious."

"Yes, but is that everything?" the flier pressed. "Unusual brain activity, oddities in their vital signs…anything like that?"

Panacea sighed and touched Tattletale. "Huh…now that you mention it, Tattletale's Corona Pollentia and Corona Gemma are both working overtime, far more than any Thinker I've healed before."

"What're you thinking, Aegis?" I asked, sitting up straight.

"None of this has made sense to me since you arrived." The leader of the Wards said with a frustrated sigh. "Going after the _Wards_ is bad enough, but going after a Cape in her _civilian_ identity? Going after _Panacea_? Alone, any one of those might get him Kill Order, but all three at once? If Director Piggot hasn't issued a request for one by now, I will be _very_ surprised."

"Really hope it gets refused." Glory Girl muttered, sounding the smallest bit nervous. "Hamelin might be our only way out of this hellhole."

"Right." Aegis nodded. "But as I say, the level of backlash on him for everything he's done makes this either the actions of an insane man who no longer cares about the consequences _or_ a planned strategy with a specific outcome. Justitia, you're the only person here who's actually talked to him. Did he seem unstable or insane?"

I considered that for a moment before shaking my head. "No, he actually seemed pretty lucid, if a bit overly dramatic. Then again, so do Jack Slash and Bonesaw, reportedly."

The Capes around me shuddered at the mention of two of the most prolific serial killers in the world. Even I shuddered.

"So, with that as caveat, I'm going to assume that Hamelin is either as sane as the next man or good enough at aping sanity to make it indistinguishable." The Wards Leader stated. "There has to be a reason that he kidnapped us all, a reason he'd deliberately risk himself in order to do so. A purpose…like selling us to the CUI, for example."

"For the Yàngbǎn?!" Vista squeaked. Most of the rest of us paled. The feared members of the Chinese Union-Imperial Parahuman Military were infamous for being brainwashed, tortured and indoctrinated into serving their masters.

"It's a possibility." Gallant admitted darkly. "The Yàngbǎn are known to prefer to get their hands on young Capes to allow them to mold and shape them with their methods."

"But that doesn't explain why their Pollentia and Gemma are going nuts." Panacea frowned as she checked the other unconscious Undersiders. "I've read Mastered and Trumped Capes before and this is…totally unlike anything I've ever come across. The only one who comes close is Eidolon when he switches his powers out."

My mind made a connection and I gasped, my eyes wide. "Holy hell…!"

"Justitia…?" Gallant asked, probably feeling my churning emotions.

"Our powers…he wants to take our _powers_!" I choked out.

The horrified expressions on the faces of everyone around me made it clear that this was not a desired outcome.

"But…but aside from Glaistig Uaine, there have only ever been power _suppressors_!" Glory Girl burst out, eyes wide with denial. "And even then, the effect's only lasted an hour at most per Cape!"

"Do you think Hamelin's some sort of power thief?" Kid Win asked seriously.

"No…not a _thief_ , exactly…" I said with a frown. "More like…a power _usurper_ …or maybe a power _leech_ might be a better term. Panacea, you said that their Pollentia and Gemma are all still active, right?"

"Right." The healer nodded. "They're working overtime, in fact."

"That proves it them." I nodded firmly. "His power…I think it has to be the ability to usurp and use the powers of other Parahumans."

"How do you figure?" Clockblocker asked doubtfully.

"Because he left the Undersiders alive." I answered, gesturing at the four villains. "Think about it; _why_ leave the original bearers alive if he completely stole their powers from them? That implies he needs them alive in order to keep using their powers for himself. The same applies for why keep them in here if he's already taken what he wants from them? If he's using them as living power batteries then he'd have to keep them somewhere he has easy access to, someplace where he can keep them secure, and someplace where no one else could find them!"

"That…makes _sense_ …but…" Aegis shook his head. "OK, assuming this guy's working according to your theory, what are his power's conditions for usurping a power?"

"Ummm…" I thought for a moment. "Well, this dimension is a big clue. It suggests that he needs a place that is absolutely under his control. The fact that the Undersiders were knocked out means that he had to defeat them in combat first. That in turn implies that the second condition is emerging victorious in a battle with the target whose power he wants to usurp. Then…then the fact that they're still here implies that he has to keep his victims here in order to maintain the usurpation…hey, is it me, or is Tattletale missing a chunk of hair?"

Vista blinked before looking at the head of the unconscious dirty-blond villainess. "Huh…you're right."

Indeed, Tattletale was missing a good chunk of her fringe. No self-respecting girl would go out without evening it out. Now that thought about it, Hellhound and Regent had chunks of hair missing too, and I could only presume the same was true for Grue.

"And _there's_ the last piece of the puzzle; he has to have a physical part of the people he's usurping powers from on his person to use them." I smirked. "I'm guessing they're hidden under his robe or even woven into it. It would explain why he has so many random-seeming powers; I'd bet that there's a room or cavern around here _full_ of Parahumans he's usurping powers from."

"But we would have heard about teenage Capes going missing!" Clockblocker protested.

"Wards, yes. Protectorate Affiliated Heroes, yes. But Independent Heroes, Rogues and Villains?" Gallant shook his head slowly. "If an Indie or a Rogue went missing, the PRT would chalk it up to the Cape getting either forcibly recruited, dying or moving away and rebranding. If a teen villain went missing, it would be a relief. Targeting them would be far easier than the Wards or a Protectorate-affiliated team like New Wave."

Pulling a face, I shook my head at that attitude. "That is a very stupid and short-sighted way of thinking about it. Before you say anything: this situation we're in now? Consider it Exhibit A."

Aegis had opened his mouth to argue, but his mouth slammed shut with a click at my point.

"Nice one." Clockblocker offered me an appreciative nod.

"OK, so we have the guy's power figured out, but what good does it do us?" Vista asked. "We're still trapped here with no way out!"

"The good it does us is that we've identified a weakness in Hamelin's powers, one that we can exploit." I answered the younger girl with a grin. "If we can find the place where he keeps his captives-slash-power sources, we can get him to come inside where we can hit him. I'd bet that he can get in here just as easily as he sent us here; he'd have to be able to do that in order to feed and care for the imprisoned Capes. If we can get our hands on Hamelin and remove the samples of hair he has on him, then we can disempower him and force him to get us out of here."

"I like this plan." Glory Girl grinned savagely as she smacked one fist into her open palm. "I've wanted to pound this guy ever since Ames and I were trapped here, and especially since I heard about him attacking Justitia in her civilian clothes!"

I was a bit startled by this until I remembered that a member of New Wave, Fleur, had been attacked in her own home out of costume and killed years ago. At a guess, I would say that New Wave feels really, _really_ strongly about someone breaking the Unwritten Rules like that.

"Whoa there!" Kid Win threw up his hands in a calming gesture. "Shouldn't we, I dunno, _not_ piss off the insanely powerful Parahuman who's holding us captive here?"

"Waiting would just keep us playing into his hands, Kid." I pointed out; an idea of what Hamelin had been planning for us forming in my head. "I dunno about the rest of you, but I haven't eaten in a while and I've used a lot of energy up fighting. If we don't do something quick, we're going to be so worn down and exhausted that Hamelin will be able to beat all of us easily. Unless you fancy trying to eat giant rats?"

That made several of the Wards turn green. Not that I blamed them. The thought of eating the flesh of a giant ravenous rat was enough to turn my stomach, empty though it may be.

"Urgh…pass." Glory Girl looked as if she were going to throw up.

"So, rats aside, has anyone actually got anything to eat or drink on them?" Clockblocker asked.

The result was a resounding negative aside from Panacea, who had a granola bar on her. Obviously it wouldn't be enough to feed us all. We discussed what to do and it was eventually decided to head back to the room where the Undersiders had been held. It was the direction that the giant rats had come from and I followed the logic of 'go to where the enemy is the most plentiful to find things they don't want you to find when in their home base.'

Yes, it was video game logic, but as my power was a video game-esque one, I thought it would work.

First things first though…

I looked through the loot that I got from the giant rats. It was fairly basic stuff; fur and the like. There were a couple of swords, which I took out and gave to Vista and Clockblocker. They were short swords made of bronze and they were definitely low-tier stuff, but it was better than fighting monster rats barehanded.

"How-? Where the heck did you get those?" Kid Win asked as Clockblocker carefully hefted the blade I'd given him.

"I told you, my power is similar to an RPG." I answered with a smile. "That means I have levels and skills and get EXP and Loot from fights. Iustitia must have played about with exactly what I got, because I don't need a weapon as long as I have her."

"Thank you Mistress." The Maiden of Justice preened happily.

"So…what 'level' were those rats?" Aegis asked. I could almost hear the air quotes around 'level' but I gamely ignored them.

"Level Three. Beginner-level stuff." I shrugged. "Right about the proper level for me, because I'm only a Level 4 **[Swordsman]** right now."

"You have _jobs_ too?"

"Yeah. Actually…Iustitia, what're the High Level and Superior Jobs that you can get after the **[Swordsman]** Class is maxed out?" I asked my Embryo.

"The High Class Jobs known to me are **[Sword Master]** and **[Sword Hunter]** , and the Superior Jobs are the **[Sword Saint]** and **[Heaven's Sword]** Classes." Iustitia answered immediately. "Of course, as you gain and level other jobs, more shall appear once their unlock conditions become fulfilled."

I then went on to question her about the conditions needed to unlock them all. **[Sword Master]** merely required me to max out the **[Swordsman]** Class, while **[Sword Hunter]** required **[Swordsman]** to be at least Level 40 and I had to have broken 100 sword-type weapons. **[Sword Saint]** required both **[Swordsman]** and **[Sword Master]** to be maxed out, as well as requiring me to defeat a certain number of enemies with a sword and my Strength and Endurance had to be above 60 each. Finally, **[Heaven's Sword]** had some form of special requirement that Iustitia couldn't tell me about, which I thought was totally bogus but she had told me the truth every other time, so I guess that there were some things that even she didn't know.

As we talked, we approached the cavern again and entered it. It was still covered in the debris of buildings and I wondered aloud of there might be anything in them of use.

"Nice thought, but I don't wanna risk going in them to find out." Aegis shook his head. "They all look ready to crumble."

Dammit.

Passing through the cavern and into the tunnel on the opposite side, we were almost immediately ambushed by five giant rats. While they were dispatched easily, I was only receiving 45 EXP per rat now, when it had originally been 75. At a guess, it was being reduced by 15 points for every level I gained past Level 2. Why it didn't change between Level 1 and Level 2 was a bit beyond me, but I rolled with it.

Anyway, the point was that pretty soon, these little buggers wouldn't give me any EXP at all, or at least such a pathetically small amount of EXP that it was barely worth the trouble. The thought of ten EXP per rat was making me twitch with irritation.

I killed three giant rats, so I received 135 EXP. Add that onto the 53 EXP I had after that fighting retreat and I had 188 EXP, with 212 EXP until I levelled up again.

"Still, I do wish that my stats weren't being raised so unbalanced towards the physical side." I grumbled to Iustitia as she reverted back to her Maiden Form.

"Once I reach my Second Stage Form, I will be able to grant you level-up bonuses as well, Mistress." My Embryo comforted me as she patted the corpses of the giant rats to retrieve loot from them. "Ordinarily, Embryos do that even just with their First Forms, but I am special in that in exchange for not granting you any bonuses aside from my presence, forms and skills, I automatically grant you the accumulated recompense in the form of levelling your untouched stats by the same amount as was added to your other stats as soon as I evolve into my Second Stage Form."

It took me a moment to work out what she meant. "So by ignoring my Intelligence and Wisdom as I'm doing now, I'll be granted a large lump of points for them when you do evolve? What about afterwards?"

"At that point, I will add to your Intelligence and Wisdom by 5 points every time you level up, and to your Strength, Endurance and Toughness by 5 every other level." Iustitia answered.

"In addition to my jobs? Wow…" I muttered, mind racing as I thought of the possibilities.

"What do you mean 'other forms'?" Kid Win asked. "Can't your projection just switch between a girl and that sword/scales combo?"

"Humph. As if a Maiden Embryo could be satisfied with just that low level of power." Iustitia snorted. "A Maiden Embryo starts off with two forms; this image of a young girl that you see now and my initial weapon form. Other Embryos start off with one form. As we and our Masters grow in strength and experience, an Embryo can evolve into another form. Sometimes the change is permanent, other times we can shift to whatever form is needed. Those who unlock the seventh and final form of an Embryo are a rare breed, but I believe my Mistress will do so for me."

"Is there any rhyme or reason to the weapons?" the Tinker prodded curiously.

"I am currently a Maiden-with-Arms. That means I take the alternate form of a weapon or piece of armour. My next form could be anything; a guardian monster to protect my Mistress, a castle to grant her a safe retreat, a barrier to entrap her enemies…it all depends on how my Mistress and I grow and develop."

"And you can have seven different forms?" Clockblocker whistled. "Definitely _at least_ Trump 7 or 8 for that."

I knew about the system of ranking that the PRT used to rate the various Capes, even if I thought that rating them by how potentially dangerous their powers were was a bit stupid. I would personally rate them by the strength and utility of the powers themselves, but hey, the government makes stupid decisions all the time.

We were attacked by Giant Rats three more times as we walk down the tunnel and I gained enough EXP through those fights to level up again. I was now a Level 5 Swordsman and now had the **[Small Stamina Boost]** Passive Skill, which added 50 to my Stamina bar, which was much appreciated.

"That…is a very _big_ door." Clockblocker remarked as we came to a halt in front of it. I fully agreed with him, as it was a door that made bank vaults look flimsy and weak by comparison. It had to be at least four meters square and a couple of feet thick at least. Shining steel and possibly titanium in construction, I believe.

"Kid, tell me that you can bullshit your way into it." I said calmly.

"Depends if this is a Tinker construction or not." The Ward frowned as he looked the door over with a critical eye. "Gimme a minute."

"OK. Backup plan is to try and get Glory Girl to rip the door off." I sighed.

"Not sure I can." The girl known as Alexandria Junior said as she eyed the door dubiously. "Batter it into submission, maybe, but I'd need too much leverage to pry it outta there considering the weight of the door and the size of the locking bars on that thing."

She saw a few raised eyebrows (figuratively speaking) sent in her direction and snorted. "Blonde does not equal stupid, _duh_." she added the 'duh' in the most sarcastic Valley Girl impression I've ever heard.

Unfortunately, the familiar sound of four legged monsters charging towards us, from behind this time, broke up the session. Kid Win worked on the door while the rest of us minus Panacea kept the rats away from him. As I was only getting 30 EXP per rat now, I was not anticipating levelling up anytime soon, as Gallant had grabbed Kid's laser pistol and was blasting away like it was going out of fashion. I think the fact that his Blaster power was the next best thing to useless in this situation was something of a sore point for him.

"Any _time_ now Kid!" Aegis shouted as he punted a rat back several feet with a snap kick.

"I need more _time_!" the Tinker shouted back. "Whoever put this together did such a kludge job of it that I'd be amazed if it actually opens!"

"Just hurry the fuck up!" I roared as I bisected a rat of my own. "We're getting overwhelmed here!"

"Oh, what the hell!" the red and gold armoured teen snarled and messed about with the wiring inside the hatch he'd somehow managed to pop off. With several hiss-snap sounds and a groan of heavy metal, the door opened wide.

"Fall back!" Aegis ordered. Following his command, we slowly and painfully withdrew as the tide of rats grew ever thicker. Once we were through, Kid Win slapped the controls and the door slammed shut, crushing half-a-dozen rats to death as it did so.

"That was…fun." Clockblocker said faintly as he collapsed onto his ass, his borrowed sword clattering down next to him. "Let's _never_ do that again."

"Seconded." Vista piped up.

"Uh…guys?" Kid Win said faintly. "We…may have a problem."

Turning around, I felt my jaw drop at the sight I beheld. Rather than just a random cavern, this was a cavern with an entire town inside it! There was even a curtain wall surrounding the place, and on top of it were…

"Are those _people_?" I asked in disbelief.

"Only about as much as those rats are." Gallant replied after he presumably used his helmet's zoom function to have a look. "They may _look_ like the real deal from a distance, but their faces are flat and their eyes are pure white; no iris or pupils. I'd bet they're more projections like the rats."

"This…could be a problem." I sighed. Regardless of the likelihood that these were indeed human-like projections, the Wards were _not_ trained to fight other humans to the death, which this would likely lead to. Real or not, we had to get out of here, and of the only way to do that was to go through the people guarding the town, then real human or not, that is what I would do.

"Kid, can you fly up and see if there's another way out of this cavern or if this is the last place we have to look." I requested. "Panacea…can you wake up the Undersiders? We need to talk to them."

 **Extra: Fury of New Wave**

Sarah Pelham, better known as Lady Photon, lost control of her powers for the first time in years and vaporized the cordless handset of the house phone. Making a sound of disgust with herself, she made a note to buy a new one later, once the current crisis was over with.

"Dear?" Neil, her husband, asked delicately. Crystal and Eric, her daughter and son, looked over at her with wide eyes. It had been a long, _long_ time since 'Photon Mom' lost control of her lasers like that.

"That was the hospital Amy was at today." Sarah ground out, anger licking at her words. "The man who kidnapped the Wards ambushed Amy and Victoria as soon as they met outside the doors and they just… _vanished_. The PRT suspects a kidnapping."

"Holy shit!" Crystal muttered in shock, before her temper seemed to flare to mimic her mother. "What's the plan, Mom?"

"Everyone, suit up." Lady Photon said grimly as she started to make her way to her room. "We are going to track this _man_ down and get our family _back_. Neal, call Carol and get her and Mark ready as well."

"On it." Manpower nodded.

It took less than five minutes for every member of New Wave who wasn't kidnapped to gather at the Pelham Family home. Brandish looked positively furious, with even Flashbang showing some emotion at the kidnapping of his daughters.

"We're going to spread out and patrol the _entire city_ if we have to." Lady Photon stated firmly. "I have requested a basic description of the perpetrator from the PRT. Whoever it is that has our girls wears a form-concealing technicolor robe with a hood. He also carries a flute of some description. Current power rating is Mover 6, both for the teleportation effect he uses and for his superspeed. He uses the speed to flee from pursuers and is fast enough to escape from Battery and avoid Triumph's sonic howl. Another tentative rating that the PRT have given him is Stranger 3, as no one saw him until it was too late, despite his loud and obvious costume."

"As he has shown a preference for going after young Capes, Laserdream is being assigned to be with Brandish and Flashbang, while Shielder is being assigned to myself and Lady Photon." Manpower added. "Remember, we need him conscious in order to discover the whereabouts of Panacea and Glory Girl, so be careful with your fire."

Grim nods came from the gathered Capes. The last time that a member of New Wave had been targeted, she had ended up dead before they had even known about it. Fleur's death had broken the spirit of New Wave and cost them Lightstar, Fleur's boyfriend.

This time, they had lost the two youngest members of their team; the ever-shy and hardworking Amy and loud, boisterous, but kind, Victoria. _This time_ New Wave would find the one who had taken their team members and _wring_ the location or locations that he had stashed their members before he had a chance to do anything to them.

"I find it hard to believe that someone could keep Vicky away from her sister." Flashbang said with a frown. "They're probably together. Stay alert for any signs of Vicky's aura."

"Agreed." Brandish said frostily. Once again, Lady Photon promised herself that once this crisis was over, she was going to sit her sister down and get to the bottom of her attitude towards Amy. It was becoming less and less subtle as the years went on and she was certain that Amy was perceptive enough to have noticed it long before now.

' _First_ _things first, Sarah._ ' She told herself. ' _First_ _rescue your nieces, then do something about your sister's attitude towards the one not related to her by blood._ '

As far as she was concerned, Amy was a member of the family. Regardless of the kind of man her father was, Amy herself was innocent. Perhaps that was what was getting Brandish upset.

 _Later_

Lady Photon tore along a street, becoming increasingly frustrated. It had been over an hour and the only sighting of the madman who had kidnapped Panacea, Glory Girl and the Wards had been when he had somehow infiltrated the Wards Base beneath the PRT Building to try and kidnap Shadow Stalker as well!

' _How_ _is he_ doing _this?!_ ' she thought angrily. ' _He would have to have Breaker AND Stranger powers to infiltrate the Wards base! And then to escape Armsmaster and outrun Velocity?! Just who are we dealing with here?!_ '

Grab-bag Capes were usually of two flavors; ones that had three to four powers of moderate strength and ones who had seven-plus powers that were weak separately. This robed man had displayed strong teleportation and superspeed for his Mover Rating, the cage of light he tried to capture Shadow Stalker in earned him a Shaker Rating, the ability to remain unnoticed until he had started to teleport someone away had earned him a Stranger Rating and he had even shown a powerful Blaster ability of some kind.

"Fuck off, ya glowing dildo!" a familiar, not very welcome, voice interrupted her thought process. Looking around, she spotted Skidmark standing at the head of about twenty armed Merchants.

"I do not have time for this!" Lady Photon snarled and blasted the lot of them before Skidmark could get his shields up. She held back enough to prevent any lethal or serious injuries, but she was also not gentle with them. All twenty-plus of the drug-ridden idiots fell in less time than it took to eat a peanut, Lady Photon speeding off elsewhere, absently letting the PRT know about where Skidmark was as she did so.

It was going to be a LONG night for her.


	5. Session 1-5

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.5**

Waking up the Undersiders had been easy for Panacea. What was troublesome had been the reaction they had to discovering they couldn't use their powers. Grue had been relatively calm after a brief bout of disbelief, but Hellhound ("Bitch, dammit!"), Regent and Tattletale had been very outspoken about the loss of their powers.

Well, Tattletale had actually mostly been complaining about her Thinker Headache. Evidently, all Thinkers had a tendency to develop bad headaches if they overused their powers, headaches that no amount or quality of painkiller (outside possible Tinkertech pharmaceuticals) could hope to alleviate or even soften.

"Why does she have a Thinker Headache?" Glory Girl asked with a raised eyebrow. "She can't even _use_ her powers right now."

"Her Gemma is working overtime…" Panacea mused, her fingertips resting on a small portion of Tattletale's exposed face as she, reluctantly, tried to do something to help. "I honestly can't say. I haven't seen anything quite like this before…"

"Maybe it's another aspect of Hamelin's power." I suggested thoughtfully. "He only takes the useful aspects of the power, leaving any negative blowback with the original wielder?"

"Owwwwwwwww!" Tattletale groaned. "Yeah…he's been _over_ using my power if this headache is anything to go by…where's my gun, by the way?"

"Clock took it to fight off the rats." Kid Win informed her.

"Great. And I guess we're going to be arrested once we get out of this mess…" Grue said darkly.

"IF we get outta this." Regent chipped in testily.

"Why?" I asked in confusion.

"Justitia…they're _villains_." Aegis said patiently.

"At the moment they aren't Parahumans and we're trapped here, so arresting them is pointless." I said testily. "Also, they're victims of Hamelin as much as we are, more so even because they've had their powers stolen! What kind of asshole move would arresting them at this point be?"

The Wards leader flinched.

"Much as I hate to admit it, she's right, Aegis." Clockblocker said seriously. "I think a mini-Endbringer Truce is called for here."

"Director Piggot will have our heads!" Aegis protested.

"Tell her to take a long walk off a short pier." I suggested waspishly. "We need as many able bodies as we can get if we want to get out of this fucking nightmare house. Hero, villain, independent or rogue doesn't matter. Blame me for it if you want, but just shut up and get with the program."

"And that's you told." Kid smirked at Aegis, who sighed and slumped down in defeat.

"This should be on daytime TV." Regent said with a laugh. "A rookie hero pushing around the leader of the Wards…I'd go pay per view for that!"

Grue absently whacked Regent over the head with the practiced motion of someone who had carried out an action so many times it had become ingrained into their muscle memory.

"So what's the plan, Justitia?" Vista asked.

"I'll draw the attention of those things guarding the town." I said, taking a deep breath to keep myself calm and centered. This was not going to be fun. "While I'm doing that, the rest of you will infiltrate the town, locate the captured Capes and get as many of them out of there as you can."

"Not happening." Glory Girl shook her head firmly. "You're pretty good with that sword of yours, but no way can you fight so many of those human projections."

"Can any of you fight and kill something that looks so human?" I challenged. "This isn't like the Giant Rats; these things are shaped like people, who you all are trained to go easy on. The only possible exceptions _might_ be the Undersiders, but they're powerless right now. I'll handle it."

Panacea sighed. "She's right. Everyone here has been conditioned not to attack humans with everything that they have. Against these projections, that's too big of a handicap."

"Actually, they aren't too bad to fight against." Grue interjected. "We appeared here and got swarmed by them when that bastard Hamelin teleported us."

I could see Aegis visibly fight down the urge to scold Grue for his language.

"So how'd you get your butts kicked?" Clockblocker asked.

"He teleported us here without Bitch's dogs and there were at least twenty of those clay-faced bastards waiting for us." The leader of the Undersiders growled. "We were overwhelmed before we could even _try_ to put up a fight. And those things definitely have some kind of Brute rating for durability if nothing else; I punched one in the throat and didn't even phase it. Brute 1 or 2 at least."

"Yep. My stun gun did squat as well." Regent chipped in.

"Well, I was sort of expecting that." I sighed. I had secretly hoping I'd been wrong but sadly once more reality had decided to butt in. "If this is where Hamelin keeps his captives, then the guardians would have to be stronger than rats he's got running rampant all over the place. What about weapons or armour?"

"Clubs and staves, mostly." The villain answered me simply. "One had a sword, but it kept to the back."

"A commander-type?" I mused.

"Sounds like it." Kid Win agreed thoughtfully. "Maybe some sort of demi-avatar that allows Hamelin to direct and coordinate his projections…?"

"Probably _another_ power he's stolen." Vista scowled.

It took a while to get everyone on board with my plan, but in the end they gave in. Guess my mom's stubborn streak lives on in me.

We would split into three groups. Panacea and Tattletale, along with Vista, were staying behind. Tattletale was too wracked by the debilitating Tinker Headache, to be of any use, Panacea wasn't a combat Cape, and Vista was too small to carry anyone who'd been captured. Her space-warping would also be useful for keeping our way out secure while so the others could focus on finding and freeing the prisoners.

I was my own group, along with Iustitia. Our job would be to draw the guards away from the entrance and keep their attention while everyone else worked.

Everyone else would be on the infiltration team, they'd go in after I had the guards' attention, find and rescue as many of the captured capes as they could, and then book it back to the entrance.

Changing Iustitia into her weapon form, I straightened my spine and headed down the path to the town. I could see that the path curved around to end at a clearing in front of the gates to the town. There was no cover to shield anyone from the sight of the projections patrolling the wall and none in the clearing to use to my advantage. Lovely.

' _You_ _have all the advantage you need with me by your side, Mistress._ ' Iustitia telepathically offered me her support.

' _Thanks._ ' I sent back with a small smile. I tightened my grip on my sword as I walked into the clearing, stopping a handful of paces in. The gates of the town walls slammed open and five humanoid projections charged out, clubs held in one hand.

" **[Balance the Scales]!** " I stated, holding up the scales. The wave of energy hit the oncoming projections, but unlike the Giant Rats, these…Hamelinites…weren't staggered whatsoever. Hopefully I wasn't getting in over my head here.

I used **[Blade Charge]** to leap forwards and stab the lead projection in the stomach, but it was like trying to stab limestone. So damn tough! I did manage to withdraw the sword before he could swipe at me with his club. Dodging the blow, I then used **[Blade Sweep]** to deal out some more damage to it. It was a basic horizontal slash with a bit more power to it, but it was effective. Either that or these things were resistant to Piercing attacks and weak against Slashing attacks.

Avoiding several more blows from the projections, I tested my theory. I stabbed one a couple of times before cutting a different one a couple of times. No matter how I looked at it, the cuts did more damage than the stabs. Lesson learned.

I continued with single-minded focus until one of the projections crashed to the ground, unmoving.

 **[Hamelinian Warrior] (LV5) defeated! You gain 105 EXP!**

Hey! At least I get decent EXP from these guys. That's something right?

Now that I knew their weakness, it didn't take long for the other four to fall to my blade, earning me another Level Up, putting it into the Swordsman Class again. I didn't get any skills this time, but that was perfectly fine by me.

' _We_ _took care of the advance party, Mistress!_ ' Iustitia rejoiced as I quickly gathered the loot from the bodies.

' _Yeah, but now we have to deal with the main horde._ ' I pointed out, as at least ten more guys stormed out of the gates, including one who had a sword rather than a club. Oh, so the leader has decided to show up too? Just wonderful.

Stopping a few meters away from me, the sword-wielder gestured with his weapon and the other **[Hamelinian Warriors]** spread out around me. An encirclement attack, eh?

"Well then…let's **[Balance the Scales]!** " I shouted. The wave of energy erupted around me and washed over the projections. Again, there wasn't much visible sign of it taking effect, but I had to assume that half of the reason I survived that little tussle earlier with the five previous projections was because of my little trick.

With another wave of its sword, the lead projection sent two of its compatriots at me. I dodged around their attacks and used a mixture of regular slashing and **[Blade Sweep]** to dispatch them. That netted me 90 EXP apiece. I noticed that the leader seemed to be watching the way I moved closely, so the chance that Hamelin is watching me through him is pretty high too, I'd guess.

"Are these guys the best you have, Hamelin?" I asked aloud. "I've already figured out the trick to beating them. Unless you want to simply bury me under superior numbers, you'd better up your game."

OK, so taunting the nigh-omnipotent Cape in his own personal dimension might not be the _best_ plan, but I'm the distraction, dammit!

Wordlessly, the sword-wielding Hamelinian merely gestured with his sword and sent the rest of the Warriors at me. Eight of them. This would be tough.

The first lunged at me with a solid blow of his weapon, but I slammed my sword into the side of his weapon as it descended and threw the strike off target, following up with a **[Blade Sweep]** to the neck, cutting its head off.

 **Critical Hit!**

Ok, I could use this.

None of the projections so much as flinched as their compatriot fell to the ground headless and pressed their assault. They also compensated for the moment of vulnerability shown during their club attack by attacking two-man teams, one attacking me at a different angle at the same time as the first. It was irritatingly effective, as dividing my attention to avoid both attacks stopped me from mounting a proper counterattack.

' _I_ _don't have to win; I just have to endure._ ' I chanted to myself as I danced through their attacks, occasionally slicing with Iustitia's blade. I could endure these attacks. I was _good_ at enduring things. Mom's death, Dad falling into a depression, Emma betraying me, The Trio's constant attacks…I could handle something like this easily.

Outlasting things being my specialty, first one, and then another of the Warriors fell. Then, abruptly, they pulled back to their encircling positions. The sword wielder then stood forwards and pointed its blade at me.

' _Mistress, you only have 830 Stamina remaining._ ' Iustitia warned me. ' _End_ _this fight quickly, or you may be captured by this man._ '

' _Roger_ _that._ ' I thought back. Holding my blade ready, I waited for the attack from my opponent.

I didn't have long to wait. It flew at me with its weapon drawn back. Even without **[Swordsman's Eye]** , I could've read the attack; it was a basic top-right-to-bottom-left diagonal cut. I dodged to the side as it struck, carving a line across the top of its chest, just beneath the neck, with my counter-strike.

Then something _slammed_ into my side like a charging bull, sending me flying with a cry of pain. It'd _reversed_ its sword strike and _countered my counter_ in such a short amount of time?!

With another pained cry, I slammed into the ground and rolled over several times, coming to a rest at the foot of one of the Warriors, which raised its club to strike me down for good. I still had the ability to move though, so I cut off its feet before it could do more than draw back its weapon, and then cut its head off.

Turning back to the sword wielder, I winced as my ribs protested my movement. It was sore, but I hadn't any broken ones. I think.

' _Mistress, you've lost over a hundred HP!_ ' my Embryo cried out in worry. ' _You_ _should retreat! This isn't an opponent you can defeat by yourself!_ '

' _Sorry, Iustitia._ ' I told her with a wry smile crossing my face. ' _I_ _can't do that. The Wards and the rest are counting on me. I will not fail them. Because…_ '

"…that is _my_ justice!"' I finished aloud.

There was silence for a moment before the Sword and Scales of Justice burst into dazzling light.

"Yes, my Mistress!" Iustitia exulted. "I am your Embryo and I shall give my all to upholding your justice!"

A screen popped up in front of me.

 **[Embryo Evolution! Second Stage Evolution Confirmed!]**

 **Mapping all 126 evolutionary paths…**

 **Selecting best possible evolution choice for current situation…**

… **Completed.**

 **Second Form: [Cudgel of the Law]!**

' _Iustitia!_ _Take on your new form!_ ' I ordered her, smirking in anticipation.

' _Yes, Mistress!_ ' She sounded even more eager than I was.

In another blaze of light, I was holding a short club, about a foot long. It looked to be made of white gold, with a golden crest of a sword and scales inlaid on the shaft. At the opposite end of the handle was a ball about the size of an apple which was glowing.

I recognised it as a tipstaff, a ceremonial club used by tipstaves, a type of bailiff normally called court officers. Thank you Mom for being interested in uncommon and old-fashioned words.

' _Mistress, this form has two different abilities._ ' Iustitia informed me. ' _The_ _first is_ **[Order in the Court]** _,_ _which gives you increased damage for every enemy you are facing. The second is_ **[The Law Stands Alone]** _,which increases the amount of damage you deal out based on a condition; the lower your Stamina gauge is compared to how full it should be, the higher the extra damage you deal is. It also reduces the rate of your stamina consumption by three-quarters while active._ '

' _In_ _other words, it's the perfect weapon to use now, when I'm both outnumbered and low on Stamina!_ ' I summed up, a truly ferocious smile spreading across my face. This was going to be **good**!

With a roar, I charged in and swung my new weapon at the sword wielding projection. It attempted to block my attack, but the sheer force of my blow shattered its sword into pieces.

Reacting quickly, it fell back as its sword started to regenerate and the other Warriors launched an attack on me. Unlike before, my blows were enough to send the projections flying with one hit. I stomped the last three of them in quick succession before returning my attention to the sword wielder, which had finished regenerating its sword.

Just about the only disadvantage of this new weapon was that my **[Swordsman]** Class Attack Skills **[Blade Charge]** and **[Blade Sweep]** couldn't be used. I'd have to pick up another class to use this new weapon form to its fullest.

"Justitia!" Glory Girl shouted as she swooped in and hammered the projection from behind with one fist. It was sent flying towards me and I swung my Cudgel of the Law like a tennis racket, slamming into it midsection, which practically disintegrated under the force of the impact.

 **[Hamelinian Warrior Chief] (LV7) defeated! You earn 190 EXP!**

That was enough to push me to another level as well, but I put it to one side as I replaced Iustitia into the safety of the crest on my hand.

"Mission complete?" I asked as I grabbed her hand, letting her fly me to the top of the valley.

"And then some." The Flying Brick agreed. She dropped me down and Panacea walked over and looked me in the eyes, worry in them.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "That projection threw you quite a distance."

"I think I have a few bruised ribs, but nothing too bad." I answered with a wince, reminded of their existence.

"Do I have your permission to heal you?" the healer asked.

"Go ahead." I nodded. She reached out and touched me on the cheek with one hand, the pain fading away almost instantly. "Wow. That feels so much better! Thanks."

"All in a day's work." Panacea answered with a smile. "The others brought some food from the town. You should get something to eat, my healing draws on the bodies protein and fat stores in order to heal and replace any damaged tissue. Not to mention you're probably starving after being stuck in here for so long."

"I hear that." I sighed.

As I grabbed the first sandwich I saw and dug in, I listened in on Aegis talking to the other Wards.

"We have Road Runner, a villain from Philadelphia. He was rated to be a Mover 5, superspeed limited to when he was being chased. Also, we have an unknown Tinker, Lightray from Texas, a Vigilante Shaker 4 who makes solid-light structures, and several others that I don't recognise." He listed. "How long has this guy been active? Lightray vanished over a year ago!"

"Justitia was right. The Protectorate really should keep a better track of Indies." Gallant sighed.

"Great, so we have a dozen unconscious bodies." Vista grumbled in between bites from a granola bar. "All of whom will be useless in a fight because they're without their powers. _More_ people to protect."

"What was it like in there?" I asked Kid Win.

"Like a freaking ghost town." The Tinker shuddered. "The place is built like a town from the Swiss Alps a couple of hundred years ago and I half expected to see men running around in lederhosen every time I peeked in the houses."

"Most of 'em are just empty shells; no furniture or even floors, just an outer casing." Glory Girl added. "Only the buildings around the town center are anything close to real. And boy, are they freaky too. Just rows of stone slabs and the Capes on top of them."

"One was even solely dedicated to housing a power generator, along with a couple of fridges and freezers." Kid Win added. "There were perishable storage units too. He had enough to last him quite a while. We took a bit, but we do need to get out of here."

"I beat sixteen of those humanoid projections, so he has to have noticed things are not going according to plan by this point." I said with a nod. "Speaking of which…"

I checked my list of jobs via my mirror.

 **Available Jobs:**

 **\- Fighter**

 **\- Soldier**

 **\- Duelist**

 **\- Academic**

 **\- Bailiff (*)**

 **\- Maceman (*)**

 **\- X - Sergeant-at-Arms (*)**

Oooh, three new ones!

According to Iustitia, **[Maceman]** was the basic club user, which provided several useful strength boosts and skills. **[Bailiff]** was a hybrid between a **[Maceman]** and the **[Scribe]** class, acting kind of similar to a Red Mage in that while I could gain skills from both classes, I wouldn't master either of them to the same degree, although there were unique class only skills.

The last class, **[Sergeant-at-Arms]** , was one I had the right stats for, but not the right classes. In order to unlock it fully, I had to have the **[Swordsman]** , **[Soldier]** , **[Spearman]** , **[Maceman]** , **[Halberdier]** , **[Archer]** and **[Crossbowman]** classes levelled at 25 each at least. It was a shame, but I didn't think I'd do that. The likelihood of Iustitia becoming all of those weapons was unlikely and I would need to keep with the classes that worked for my Embryo.

With that in mind, I chose the **[Maceman]** class.

 **[Congratulations!]**

 **You have acquired the [Club Mastery] passive skill!**

 **You have levelled up!**

 **You are now a Maceman (LV1)**

 **You gain +50 HP!**

 **You gain +5 Strength!**

 **You gain +5 Toughness!**

 **You gain +5 Endurance!**

 **By the effect of your Embryo, you are granted the accumulated stat points to your Wisdom and Intelligence!**

 **You gain +45 Intelligence!**

 **You gain +45 Wisdom!**

 **You gain the [Mighty Smash] Skill!**

 **You gain the [Buckler Mastery] Skill!**

 **You gain the [Second Health Boost] Skill!**

 **From your Embryo's evolution, you gain the [MP Up!] Skill!**

 **Name: Taylor Hebert**

 **Cape Name: Justitia**

 **Gender: Female**

 **Level: 7**

 **Title: None**

 **Job (s): (1) Swordsman (LV6)**

 **(2) Maceman (LV1)**

 **EXP: 73/550**

 **Embryo: Maiden of Justice Iustitia**

 **Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms**

 **Embryo Forms Achieved: 2/7**

 **Stats**

 **HP: 650**

 **STA: 1500**

 **MP: 205**

 **Strength: 47**

 **Toughness: 45**

 **Endurance: 47**

 **Intelligence: 65**

 **Wisdom: 60**

 **Luck: ?**

Given that my mental stats had been higher initially, it wasn't a surprise that they were higher now too.

"Oh yeah!" Glory Girl exclaimed. "You were throwing those creeps around like they were nothing! What the hell happened?"

"Iustitia achieved her second form." I answered as I put my mirror away. "It gave me two new abilities that increases my damage output depending on how many enemies I face at any given moment, and ups my damage further depending on how low my stamina is."

"A Trump/Brute powerset?" Clockblocker whistled. "Not bad."

"Trump/ _Striker_ , Clock." Kid Win objected. "She said damage, not strength. It isn't actually increasing her physical strength, just the damage she deals out. I'd put it at Trump/Striker 4 or 5."

"What about the fact those projections were getting airtime with every hit?" Glory Girl asked pointedly. "It was like watching a Brute fight."

"A secondary component to her Striker section reflecting the damage as what the equivalent of physical strength would do to the target." The Tinker rattled off.

"What is your new weapon?" Aegis asked me. I silently called out Iustitia, my Embryo showing off her new form as a tipstaff.

"A club?" Panacea asked with a raised eyebrow.

"A _tipstaff_." I corrected her. "A ceremonial mace used since the 15th century as a symbol of rank for a certain kind of bailiff. It fits in with the 'justice' theme Iustitia and I have going. I'm looking forward to seeing what her third form will be."

"Anyway…what do we do now?" Gallant asked.

"We have to wait until Hamelin notices that we've pretty much taken over the inner sanctum of his dimension." I said as I got Iustitia to resume her human form. She looked even older now, barely a year younger than me. She also had bigger boobs than I did, dammit!

"How long'll that be?" Grue asked. The Undersiders had been silent aside from Tattletale's infrequent groans of pain.

A deafening roar of fury filled the cavern. It was male, it was coming from everywhere and, boy oh boy, did it sound angry.

"I'd say right about _now_." Regent put in snidely.

Grue whacked him over the head again.


	6. Session 1-6

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.6**

The roar that was presumably Hamelin's expression of rage continued on for a moment before cutting out. Either he was still in the middle of fighting/fleeing the Protectorate and couldn't come into his little fiefdom or he had shifted in and was on his way here already.

In either case, I knew we couldn't last much longer. I dunno about the Wards, the Undersiders or the two younger members of New Wave, but I was _exhausted_ , both physically and mentally. I'd been awake since seven this morning and it was at least ten o'clock right now and the last three or four hours had been nothing but constant stress and combat. We needed rest, and I had the funniest feeling we weren't going to get it anytime soon.

Voicing this opinion wasn't wise, as it would drag down morale, so I kept quiet about it. Instead, I examined Iustitia. She had taken on the physical appearance of a fourteen year old, one more gifted than I was in the bust, hips and rear-end department and she also had a pretty face. Typical, my own _power_ was more physically attractive than _I_ was!

"So what's the plan?" Kid Win asked.

"We're all tired, so we rest while we can." I informed him.

"Seriously?" Aegis asked.

"What about that roar just now? Isn't Hamelin pissed at us?" Glory Girl asked with a frown, scanning her surroundings. I was willing to bet that the instant the kidnapping Cape appeared, she'd try to brain him. I'd do the same, truth be told.

"What else is there to do?" I asked, offering a light shrug. When I was met with silence, I continued as I plopped down on the ground and leaned against a wall, trying to get as comfortable as I can. "Either he's still running from and/or fighting the Protectorate and New Wave or he's already here. If it's the latter, we can't do anything without him being within laser pistol range. If he's still playing tag with your superiors and family we can use this time to catch our breaths and get some rest. Because, I don't know about you lot, but I'm bushed."

"Yeah, we're a bit tired too." Vista nodded, stifling a yawn.

"So then, we'll take hour-long naps in shifts, half on, half off." I proposed. "Not nearly as good as sleeping properly, but it'll at least mean we're not dead on our feet when the Pied Piper of Crazytown comes calling."

"Sounds like an idea." Grue nodded. "Kid Win told me that you have weapons. Care to share the wealth?"

I looked through my inventory and saw that Iustitia must have touched the Giant Rat stuck in the door or one of the Hamelians and played around with my drops from that, because I had a whole bunch of weapons. "Any preferences?"

"I'm a fist fighter." The Undersiders' leader said.

"Any cattle prods?" Regent asked.

"Hand to hand." Bitch grunted.

"Ranged…if possible." Tattletale said, wincing as her headache throbbed in fury.

"Well…for Grue and Bitch…these [Knuckle Gloves] will be good." I said, drawing two pairs of hand protectors. Each had blunt spikes atop the knuckles that slightly increased their damage in hand to hand combat, regardless of whether they were used as a boxer's weapon or in swipes like Bitch used. I had to explain that to Grue when he pointed out his teammate's fighting style, and he was impressed by my 'Trumping effect' so that was good.

"As for you, Regent…nope. Fresh out of cattle prods." I shrugged. "Got a blackjack though."

"Meh, better than nothing." The renaissance-faire reject shrugged. The one I gave him was one of three I received, with this one having a 10% chance to double the damage dealt with each hit and a 5% chance to stun per hit.

Ranged weapons…yeah, I only had one.

"What the heck is this?" Tattletale looked at it in bafflement. It was a pouch with several small projectiles in it.

"Throwing darts, sixteen of them." I informed her. "They may not look like much, but they'll hit with a shock effect, paralyzing whoever's hit with them for a moment. That should give you time to get away. Take this baton too."

What I gave her was a billy-club made of wood, with no special effects other than raising her defence slightly while she wielded it. I noticed Aegis staring in my direction for a moment before looking away. I could tell that he was very much in of the thought that handing out weapons to villains was A Bad Thing, but _screw_ him. We were under an Endbringer Truce and everything, so they needed to be able to pull their weight.

Besides, I didn't give Regent my best blackjack, nor did I give Grue and Bitch my best gloves. Tattletale's ranged weapon was limited in ammo and her close combat weapon was only as lethal as her arms could swing it. She obviously preferred to stay out of CQC, so I doubted that she had much practice at using weapons like the club.

See Aegis? I can think ahead too! Ya jerk…

In the end, despite my exhaustion, I was one of the ones to remain awake and on guard duty, alongside Gallant, Glory Girl, Aegis, Grue and Regent. Kid Win, Vista, Panacea, Clockblocker, Bitch and Tattletale would sleep, or at least try to. I really felt sorry for Tattletale, who was still suffering under her Thinker headache. I was pretty thankful that I didn't have Thinker powers if one of those damned headaches was the end result.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Aegis quietly asked uneasily half an hour later, looking around at the villains suspiciously.

"I don't see anything suspicious with them, Aegis." I pointed out softly.

Grue and Regent were talking in low voices, with Grue looking around every so often. The Wards Leader twitched every time he did.

"Look, we need all the help we can get." I said patiently. "Grue agreed to an Endbringer Truce, so we have to take them at their word. If there's _one_ thing that villains can be counted upon, it's keeping the Endbringer Truce. Doesn't the Protectorate teach you _anything_?"

Aegis shut up.

I sighed and went back to scanning the valley. Aegis was _such_ a self-righteous little…! I mean, I could understand it if the Undersiders had made ANY suspicious moves since they'd woken up, but they hadn't done anything fishy at all from what I could see. Maybe they'd done something while I'd been playing decoy?

Or maybe Aegis is just a lawful stupid kinda guy. I had no clue what his damage was here, but I could tell that once Hamelin was dealt with, he was going to be a pain in the ass.

I stood up and walked over to lean against the wall of the enclosed valley. Iustitia followed me.

' _That_ _boy is irritating you, Mistress?_ ' she asked silently.

' _Yes. He's so convinced that someone being a villain automatically makes them a threat that has to be neutralized, even in this kind of circumstance._ ' I replied. ' _Given_ _that he's eying Grue and Regent like a sheepdog eyes a wolf, I think he's probably going to try to arrest the Undersiders after Hamelin is taken care of._ '

' _They_ are _villains._ ' Iustitia pointed out. She didn't sound accusing, more like she was simply stating the facts.

' _True, but there are very clear and defined rules to do with an Endbringer Truce._ ' I explained patiently. ' _As_ _soon as the Endbringer Sirens go off, the Truce is in effect. It only ends once all heroes and villains are returned to their homes without incident. In the spirit of that, this mini-Endbringer Truce should be in effect until the Wards, New Wave and the Undersiders separate. Aegis is likely going to claim that with no authority figures from the Protectorate here to make it, the truce doesn't count or something like that. That is unjust, so I will oppose him if it comes to it._ '

' _If that is your justice, then I shall grant you my power to carry it out, Mistress._ ' My Embryo stated firmly. I nodded at her with a smile before continuing my watch. Half an hour later, it was my turn to rest and I dropped off like a light.

Waking up an hour later left me feeling groggy as hell. Seriously, I was going to lock myself in my room and sleep for a couple of days once this was over.

"Any sign of him?" I asked Panacea, who had been the one to wake me up.

"Nope." The healer shook her head. "He's not shown his face here, ditto for any more projections."

That…was worrying. We've violated his base of operations, taken custody of the source of his stolen powers and destroyed what had to be a good portion of his minions. By all rights, he should have stormed in here ages ago ready to cut us into pieces. The fact that he hadn't meant that either he couldn't, for whatever reason, or that he was coming up with a way to attack us with another projection while he was still outside.

If it was the former, then it also led to the latter. My mom had been able to carry on a full conversation while she graded papers from her job as an English Lit professor, so I knew that it was possible to multitask. If Hamelin was making a projection to take us on whilst simultaneously running from and/or fighting the heroes chasing him, it was a worrying prospect.

The only bright side is that it obviously took the bastard time to do so; otherwise we'd have been overrun long before now.

When I informed the others of my guess, I was met with groans. Evidently they deemed it likely as well.

"This guy's like a goddamned Dungeon Master." Clockblocker muttered. "If I have to fight a bugbear or something, I am going to be _so_ pissed."

"Uh, guys?" Vista said with a gulp. "The wall's _warping_!"

Looking over at where the Shaker was pointing at, the wall on the opposite side of the valley, a large section of the wall was being warped by some kind of purple and orange energy field. It was about the side of a one-story house and did not give me the warm fuzzies to look at.

Fortunately, my Stamina Bar was now full from both eating and sleeping for an hour. If Hamelin wanted to play games, I'd play games right back at him.

' _Mistress, I sense a BM being formed._ ' Iustitia spoke up suddenly. She had retreated into the seal on my hand while I slept.

' _A_ what _now?_ ' I asked.

' _A_ _Boss Monster._ ' My Embryo replied. ' _A_ _vastly stronger monster than any of the regular ones you have faced up until now. Typically, it will be a large version of monsters you have faced in the area. That's how it is for an Area Boss, anyway. Unique Boss Monsters are even more troublesome, but fortunately, this aura isn't that of a UBM._ '

' _Lovely._ ' I thought back to her as the rock of the valley wall warped into a large metal double-door.

"Looks like we have the old monster out of the cave routine." I sighed.

Kid Win snorted. "What, like the Rancor from _Star Wars_?"

The doors burst open as soon as they were finished forming, revealing a horrific sight; a large conglomeration of hairless rats the size of race cars, their tails tied together in the center. The shrill shrieking of the dozen or so rats hurt my ears to listen to.

"No…as in a supersized Rat King." I deadpanned back. Rat Kings were troublesome omens spoken of in step with the Black Plague. They were actually just a group of rats who had their tails stuck together through some happenstance. _This_ Rat King, however, was a walking bag of trouble that we have to deal with.

"Kid…" Glory Girl growled. "You just _had_ to jinx it!"

"Gimme a break!"

"Iustitia, Form One." I ordered.

"Yes Mistress!" Iustitia said excitedly and transformed back into the sword and scales. Using this form was preferred in a one-on-one fight compared to the tipstaff form. If my Stamina dropped low enough, I'd swap over, but not before then. The **[Balance the Scales]** ability of the Scales was really too useful.

"We…have to _fight_ that thing?" Tattletale said nervously.

"Not the Undersiders or Panacea." Gallant shook his head firmly. "Not Vista either. You're all either disempowered or not combat capable. Don't argue, Vista. Your Shaker power isn't useful in this situation."

"Stupid Manton Limit…" the green-clad girl grumbled.

"Er, guys? That thing's _coming this way_!" Clockblocker said with a gulp.

Indeed, the Rat King was somehow coordinating its movements to charge across the valley at us. Just bloody perfect!

"Whatever you do, do _not_ separate the rats!" I shouted as I started to run at the charging rat pack. "The fact that they have to divide their attention to coordinate their movement is too big of an advantage to give up, so whatever you do, do NOT cut off their tails!"

"Roger that!" Kid Win nodded and pointed his laser pistol at the Rat King. Blasts of focused light leapt from it, swiftly joined by the laser rifle in Clockblocker's hands, the red beams hitting the forerunning huge rats and making them screech in pain.

"Glory Girl, smackdown time!" I called.

"Hell yeah!" The Alexandria-type grinned and flew up into the air, only to slam into the head of one of the rats like a javelin. She rose up and flew into the town, only to return with a long wooden beam that she had apparently taken from the construction materials in the town. She set about slamming her new weapon into the Rat King as a makeshift bludgeon.

" **[Balance the Scales]!** " I shouted once I came within range of the Rat King. The energy pulsed from the scales and slammed into the many bodies of the Rat King, which promptly faltered, staggered and collapsed to the ground.

At the same time, however, an immense weight landed on my shoulders. It was like I was trying to bench an eighteen wheeler!

' _Mistress, you can't keep this up!_ ' Iustitia informed me in a panic. ' _This_ _boss is resistant to my_ **[Balance the Scales]** _Skill! If you keep this up, you'll be hurt!_ '

' _How_ _long before I have to release it?_ ' I asked with gritted teeth.

' _At best, you can keep it up for five minutes._ ' Iustitia said after a moment. ' _I_ _would prefer it if you would cut it out at three, however._ '

"Guys!" I called out. "This thing has a Trump effect, an anti-Shaker one! It isn't too strong, but I can only weaken the Rat King for another few minutes, five at the very outside!"

"Fuckin' Trumps." Aegis growled as he sped in to pummel the Rat King with another wooden beam. Huh, so he took a leaf from Glory Girl's book. Nice.

I also went in and started to cut and stab with my sword. Unlike the others, who were shooting and smashing the bodies of the Rat King, I was targeting a specific part of them; the eyes. Granted, rats had a better sense of hearing and smell than sight, but I'd take whatever advantage I could get against the damn things.

I actually managed to blind three quarters of the bedamned things before I was forced to release **[Balance the Scales]**. Stupid damned Trump effects…

' **[Balance the Scales]** _is on a five minute cooldown before it can be used again._ ' Iustitia informed me.

' _OK._ _Let me know when my Stamina reaches below 800._ ' I told her.

With a chorus of roars, the Rat King's bodies rose back to their feet and started lashing out at the irritating insects that were attacking them. Fortunately, the two big hitters were fliers, which made it hard for the conjoin-tailed mess of giant rats to reach them without dragging the other rats away from their own attacks.

Being ground bound and up close with them, a lot of the rats' attacks came at me. I managed to dodge most of them, and the armor-slash-costume I wore stopped what little got through, but it hurt like hell to be slashed by the talon of a rat the size of a Buick.

"You OK?" Glory Girl shouted as she crushed the paw of one rat with her oversized club.

"F-Fine." I managed. The damn rat had sent me flying with barely a pause. Even if I _was_ wearing armor, it was only made of leather, so I was reasonably certain that I had a few fractured ribs at least from that blow. Not to mention the cuts and scrapes from a few near misses earlier.

"What does it take to _kill_ these things?!" Clockblocker shouted as he blasted away with Kid Win's laser rifle.

"Aim for their heads!" Glory Girl roared and, following her own advice, she slammed her club down on one huge rat head, splitting it apart like a melon hit by a sledgehammer.

"Gross!" Vista shouted from the rear.

Aegis followed suit and pretty soon, there was only one living part of the Rat King left alive. I took care of it with a stab through the eye and into the brain.

 **You have slain the Boss [Giant Rat King of Hamelin]! You earn 450 EXP!**

 **Generating Boss Loot…generated!**

 **You receive [Half-Closed Helm of the Rat King]!**

That was interesting. I had both earned enough EXP to level up again (I added another level of **[Maceman]** ) and gotten a piece of loot from the boss that Iustitia didn't give me.

I pulled up the helm out of curiosity.

 **[Half-Closed Helm of the Rat King]**

 **Rarity: Rare**

 **Acquired from the Giant Rat King of Hamelin, this helm retains the counter-Shaker property that was the Boss monster's selling point.**

 **Defence: +50**

 **Special Effect: Shaker Resistance (All Shaker effects used against the user are 50% more energy intensive to use and can only affect the user for a maximum of three to five minutes. Medium chance of forcing Shaker powers used on the user to go into cooldown after use of them is discontinued.)**

The appearance of the helmet was more than slightly freaky, resembling a bunch of rats draped over a metal shell. It also had a faceplate, although the lower face below the nose was left exposed. Checking it out, I was relieved to see that they were not live rats but highly ornate metal ones. I could also wear it on top of my current face mask as the face mask counted as _eyewear_ for some strange reason.

Equipping it made some of the others start in surprise, but they were a bit envious of my power once I explained what I got from the boss.

"Some people get all the luck." Clockblocker grumbled. " _I_ temporarily stop time with a touch and _you_ get a kickass video game power."

I just shrugged helplessly. What could you even _say_ to that?

After Panacea healed everyone up, we inspected the room that the Boss had come from. Carved out of one wall was a large gate even larger than the one that the Rat King had used. On one half of the gate was a sword and scales, while there were multiple symbols drawn on the other one; a clock face, a shield, a small cross, a tiara, a helmet…

"So _this_ is his game." I snorted, hefting my sword onto my shoulder.

"What?" Vista asked.

"This door leads out, but only one party can go through." I nodded at the doors. "That's what I think the symbols mean. I'm all alone on one half, while the other half has symbols representing everyone else that's awake. Basically, we're being forced to make a choice; either I go out alone or you all go out, leaving me behind. I recommend the second one."

"Son of a _bitch_!" Glory Girl swore.

"Language." Aegis said automatically.

"Oh, grow a spine." Vista snapped. "I've heard worse on patrol. We are _not_ leaving you, Justitia."

"You guys have to tell the Protectorate about Hamelin; his powers, limits and motives." I retorted. "The Protectorate won't listen to me; hell, because my costume's got a rat theme to it, they might think I'm Hamelin's _collaborator_ or something. Nope, you guys have to get outta here and take the other Capes he has trapped here with you. I think I can handle Hamelin alone for a while, especially if he's disempowered somewhat."

"This is a bad idea." Aegis shook his head slowly. "If he gets his hand on your power…"

"My power can't be used by anyone other than me. He'd have to get my Embryo on his side in order to make it work and, trust me, there's a better chance of the Simurgh getting a show in Vegas than that happening." I disagreed. I didn't actually know this for a fact, but I had a feeling it wouldn't work out well for Hamelin if he tried to usurp my power. "Look, it's a number game. One is less than a group. _Go_ , I'll be fine."

It took another five minutes to persuade the Wards, New Wave duo and the Undersiders to go and leave me. Grue promised that once I got out, the Undersiders would owe me a favour. That was pretty nice of him.

Figuring out how the door worked was pretty easy. All I had to do was place my hand on the door that had the symbols of the others on it and it opened. They walked through, most supporting at least one unconscious cape, very reluctantly. Kid Win hesitated for a moment before handing me his laser pistol.

"Eh?!" I was shocked. Why would he…?

"Make sure you return it." He said seriously before walking through the door.

I holstered the pistol in a pouch on my belt before the door closed shut behind the others. Taking a deep breath, I turned around and exited the gate room. Moving to the center of the room, I stood still and waited. Hamelin would be along in a moment, I was certain.

Sure enough a black-red orb of energy appeared in front of the gates of the town and faded away, revealing the multi-colored robe of Hamelin, who immediately turned his hooded head to face me.

" _You_ …!" he seethed.

"Yes?" I said impatiently. "I what?"

"You…do you know how much _work_ you have disrupted? _Three_ long years of it!" Hamelin hissed, the man was practically frothing like a rabid dog at the moment. "Three years of canvasing my targets, three years of dodging villains and heroes. Three years of work that you have made _defunct_ in less than a day!"

I shrugged easily before placing my arms on my hips. "And what of it? You kidnapped me, out of costume, and stuck me in this place full of giant rats and whatnot! Not to mention kidnapping Panacea, Glory Girl, the Undersiders and the Wards!"

"My ambitions required them." The man said coldly. "It will be tedious to recapture them once I have dealt with you, but at least I'll have your strange power to use against the Protectorate and New Wave."

I scoffed. "Ha. It was one thing to attack them when they were off-guard and unaware of you, but now? Now that they know how you operate and how your powers work, it may as well be suicide for you. Besides…I plan on stopping you here and now."

"Ha! As expected, that was your intention when you stood back to let the other children go." Hamelin barked out laugh, though the murderous glare he was giving me never changed. "Arrogance precedes many a fall, child. This time, the fall is yours."

"Kindly don't go declaring your victory before the first punch has been thrown." I offered him a smirk, I knew that my attitude was getting to him, and I needed every advantage I could get for this. I needed him fighting _mad_ , I needed him fighting _stupid_. "Last time I checked, all of your power sources were taken out of your control zone. You should only have your original power left to you."

Reaching inside of his robe, Hamelin withdrew a familiar flute. "I may not have my organic batteries anymore, but I still have the _residual_ powers left in this dimension from those who were here for at least a month to draw upon. I can only use them while in my dimension, but as we're here already…well, it is most unfortunate for you."

"Iustitia, Form One!" I ordered softly.

In a flash, my sword and scales were in my hands, ready and willing.

' _Mistress, don't use_ **[Balance the Scales]** _against this person._ ' My Embryo whispered to me. ' _Your_ p _hysical stats are superior to his, so you will help him if you use it._ '

' _Got_ _it._ ' I sent back grimly. This man had kidnapped _me_ , kidnapped _the Wards_ and even kidnapped _Panacea_. There was no way I was going to let him get away with that, even more so because he knew what I looked like underneath my mask. I wonder about if I hit him on the head enough times, could he develop amnesia?

"Ready? Then let us begin…" Hamelin said sinisterly as he brought his flute to his lips.


	7. Session 1-7

**Author's Note: Yo. Here's Chapter 7. For those of you who like to listen to music while reading, listen to [Kamen Rider Cronus – Justice] as the theme music for the fight between Justitia and Hamelin. I quite like it. Enjoy.**

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.7**

 _With Emily Piggot_

 _Lobby, PRT Building_

Some days Emily Piggot wished she'd died alongside her men back in Elisburg, just to avoid the sheer number of headaches her job gave her. And today had _definitely_ been one of those days.

All of the Wards, barring Shadow Stalker, had been kidnapped in broad daylight by a Cape identifying himself as Hamelin. If that wasn't bad enough, the kidnapper had somehow managed to avoid capture by Battery and Velocity and escape pursuit long enough to abduct both Panacea _and_ Glory Girl from directly outside the hospital that the world's greatest healer had been working at earlier in the day.

Needless to say, New Wave had been incensed and the Protectorate was out for blood. Not only had the abduction of a _near-full team of Wards_ been a slap in their organization's face, but the abduction of _Panacea_ , who in her few years of activity was responsible for dozens of Protectorate capes returning to active duty after what would have been crippling injuries, not to mention the lives saved after Endbringer Attacks, had just thrown oil onto the fire.

Piggot had received word no less than an hour ago that _Legend himself_ would be arriving in the morning to take command of the situation if Hamelin wasn't captured before then.

Both Kaiser and Lung had shown a remarkable degree of common sense and had kept their heads down during the whole affair, both circling the wagons to wait out the oncoming storm and likely try and take advantage of the aftermath. Skidmark had tried to take advantage of the entire affair to seize territory, but had unluckily enough run into Lady Photon while she'd been pursuing Hamelin; resulting in Hamelin escaping and Skidmark being blasted clear into the bay by a pissed off Photon Mom.

Afterwards Hamelin had once again proven himself to be certifiable by actively breaking into the _Wards Base_ to try and abduct Shadow Stalker. Luckily, the former vigilante's own abilities had allowed her to elude her pursuer long enough for Armsmaster and Miss Militia to arrive and rescue her. Unfortunately, Hamelin had managed to escape _again_!

From there the pursuit had continued until only a short while ago when Hamelin, who had stopped in front of the PRT building of all places, abruptly vanished in a small explosion of gold sparks, leaving the Wards, Panacea, Glory Girl, the teenaged Villain Gang known as the Undersiders, and a large number of unconscious individuals in his place.

The unconscious individuals, later identified as teenage Independents, Vigilantes, Rogues, or Villains previously abducted by Hamelin before his arrival in the Bay, were quickly taken to the Med Bay to be monitored. Panacea had affirmed that they were all alive and in relatively good health but most were showing signs of muscle atrophy often associated with long-term coma patients. The healer had no idea when they'd wake up, but she was hopeful that, now that they were out of reach of Hamelin's ability, it would be soon.

That was the good news; unfortunately a _new_ headache was rising to take its place. Aegis had been arguing with Gallant for the past five minutes about whether a mini-Endbringer Truce formed within a villain's dimensional pocket of all things, counted as a valid reason not to arrest the Undersiders, who were looking more and more like they were ready to bolt.

Surprisingly, it was Armsmaster who had lost his patience with the argument and requested Dragon's expert opinion. Considering that the woman headed North America's United Endbringer Defense and Response Administration as part of her responsibilities as leader of the Guild, her opinion would carry considerable weight on the matter.

" _I have to agree with Gallant here._ " The world's foremost Tinker said firmly via the speakers mounted on Armsmaster's suit. " _Any situation that can be described as an Endbringer Truce situation_ must _have the Truce upheld, both in word and in spirit. If it isn't, then the entire Endbringer Truce will fall apart._ "

"Fine." Piggot growled out, massaging her temples. She really couldn't care less at the moment about a small-time group of thieves with the rest of this shitstorm going on. While most of the time she appreciated Aegis's respect for the rules and procedures (far more than a loose cannon like Stalker) there was times the boy needed to learn to not be such an officious idiot! Turning her attention to the apparent leader of the teenage villains. "Have you recovered your powers yet?"

Grue nodded, holding up one hand and flexing it slightly. A cloud of smoky darkness the size of a grapefruit appeared hovering above it a second later. "Looks like Justitia was right, getting out of Hamelin's pocket was enough to get our powers back up and running." With that he turned and started leading his group toward the exit.

"I am going to happily _murder_ that technicolor asshole for overusing my powers so badly." Tattletale groaned aloud as she staggered toward the exit, Grue quickly pulling his teammate's arm over his shoulder to keep her from tripping or simply keeling over.

"Later, bitches." Regent called cheerfully as he jauntily followed the pair out, Hellhound stomping after him with a scowl on her face.

Once the villains departed, Piggot sent a scowl towards Aegis, who flinched back.

"Aegis, you will be sent for training on flexible thinking, you're clearly falling behind in that area. Following the rules is all well and good but sometimes one needs to adapt to the situation." She said crisply. "Gallant, who is this 'Justitia' that Grue mentioned?"

"A new Independent Hero, ma'am." The armored faux-Tinker answered crisply. "She was captured by Hamelin either a short while before or after we were. We're unclear on the exact measurements since time is difficult to measure in subdimension. She was in her civilian clothes at the time, but her power is…well, _bizarre_. It works, from all appearances, like the character system of an RPG, quantifying her physical and mental abilities in numeric form and allowing her to improve them, as well as granting her the ability to gain loot from defeated enemies. She was the one who got us out of Hamelin's dimension, but at the cost of being trapped there herself."

Piggot was about to say something more when her radio squawked. " _Console to Director Piggot._ "

"Piggot here." She sighed as she grabbed the device. With most of the Wards missing, Shadow Stalker in protective custody after her near abduction, and the entirety of the Protectorate mobilized, the console down in the Wards base was currently manned by one of her troopers.

" _New Wave is inbound to collect Panacea and Glory Girl, ma'am. Lady Photon and Brandish are looking…determined, according to Velocity._ " The man said.

"Roger that." Piggot sighed again. Dealing with Brandish was never easy, and with the woman currently on a warpath after the abduction of her children, dealing with her would be twice as arduous as normal, which was quite the feat. "Have Velocity lead them in."

" _Acknowledged, ma'am._ " The trooper replied before going silent.

The members of New Wave swooped into the PRT building minutes later, grabbing their two formerly-missing members into hugs. Brandish, she noted, kept away from Panacea, however.

"Where is the… _monster_ …that kidnapped Glory Girl and Panacea?" Lady Photon asked coldly once she had been reassured that her nieces were alive and unharmed.

"If the Wards and your nieces are to be believed, then he has a dimensional pocket that he can escape to." Piggot answered simply. "Presumably, that's where he is currently."

"Hamelin is a Glaistig Uaine-style Trump, although he requires the Parahumans in question to remain alive and relatively whole unlike the Fairy Queen." Armsmaster stated. "Although the Wards, your nieces and the Undersiders were able to bring back a dozen or so kidnapped Parahumans, the sheer _size_ of the dimension, comparable to a city the size of Boston at least, means that there is a relatively large probability that there are others still trapped within. In addition to the difficulty posed simply by getting to his dimension pocket, Aegis informs me that any Cape who falls unconscious there has their power usurped by Hamelin."

"That was Justitia's best guess, anyway." Vista piped up. "I hope she's OK."

Gallant patted her on the shoulder bracingly. "She'll be fine. I actually think she chose to stay behind just so she could face Hamelin alone. The reasons she gave were good, but I think getting grabbed in her civvies really made her mad."

"I can imagine." Lady Photon said with a scowl.

Just then, Clockblocker burst into the lobby, mask a bit askew. "Director, you'll _really_ want to see this!" he half-shouted, drawing attention from everyone present. Piggot almost screamed in frustration. What NOW!?

He hurriedly led the Wards, New Wave and Protectorate members down to the Wards base and pointed at the widescreen TV mounted on one wall that usually was used for when the Wards gathered for group bonding and relaxation. Armsmaster had been dubious about it, feeling that teambuilding exercises were sufficient for the former and that the latter could happen when they were off the clock.

This was coming from Mr. 'Free-time equals Free-to-work-time' so Piggot had ignored his pro-forma protests.

Displayed on the screen was a dirty brown valley with two figures in it; one was instantly recognizable as Hamelin, in his multi-colored robe, while the other almost had to be this 'Justitia' character. She was tall for a teenager, dressed in a brown costume that blended in very well with the dull landscape. On her head was a crowned helm that seemed to be made of rats.

" _-recapture them once I have dealt with you, but at least I'll have your strange power to use against the Protectorate and New Wave._ " A male voice, presumably Hamelin, was saying.

Justitia scoffed. " _Ha. It was one thing to attack them when they were off-guard and unaware of you, but now? It may as well be suicide for you. Besides…I plan on stopping you here and now._ "

"Damn." Glory Girl whispered as Hamelin grew amused.

" _Ha! As expected, that was your intention when you stood back to let the other children go._ " The robed villain chuckled. " _Arrogance precedes many a fall, child. This time, the fall is yours._ "

" _Kindly don't go declaring your victory before the first punch has been thrown._ " Justitia shot back, a smirk visible across her lips; though Piggot thought she could hear a bit of irritation underlying the girl's speech. " _Last time I checked, all of your power sources were taken out of your control zone. You should only have your original power left to you._ "

"She's being cocky." Armsmaster muttered. "There was no way to tell if that's the only place where Hamelin kept his victims."

"We never saw any place like that town in the rest of the dimension, Armsmaster." Vista spoke up, her voice strained slightly with worry for her new friend. "I think he only has that one town to keep people in."

" _I may not have my organic batteries anymore, but I still have the residual powers left in this dimension from those who were here for at least a month to draw upon. I can only use them while in my dimension, but as we're here already…well, it is most unfortunate for you._ " Hamelin informed Justitia smugly.

"Shit." Kid Win cursed.

"Language." Aegis and Piggot chimed in at the same time.

" _Iustitia, Form One!_ " Justitia snapped softly. In a flash, a European-style one-handed sword appeared in her right hand, while a golden set of scales appeared in her left hand.

"So that's why she took the name Justitia; her armament takes the form of Lady Justice's symbols." Piggot mused. "But why call out 'Iustitia'? It's just an alternate spelling of Justitia."

"Her power manifests as a girl who can transform into those weapons." Gallant explained. "She calls herself 'Iustitia, Maiden of Justice' and claims to embody Justitia's views on Justice. She seems as fully human as anyone that I've met and even gave us a lecture on how she came to be formed and why Justitia is a good 'Mistress' to her."

"She even knows who tortured Justitia into Triggering." Glory Girl growled. This made all of New Wave and the Protectorate stand straighter. A Trigger Event was no laughing matter, especially to First Generation Parahumans. A Trigger Event was the worst day of their lives, when they were at their weakest, when everything about them broke down and was reborn as a Parahuman.

Most of the time, Triggering was as the result of coincidence, pure happenstance. Other times, such as with Armsmaster, it was a drawn out affair that boiled over one day after years of frustration. The very worst times though were when it was as a result of human cruelty. Those who Triggered as a result of the last category were almost always powerful Parahumans, something that villain organizations such as Gesellschaft had noted and experimented with.

" _Ready? Then let us begin…_ " Hamelin said before putting the flute in his hands to his lips. Moving faster than a human normally should be able to, Justitia charged towards the villain with her sword made ready for a stab.

With a three-note tune from his flute, Hamelin was surrounded by a dome of light that blocked Justitia's path to him. Ignoring this fact, the sword-wielding Cape struck the barrier like a giant ballista bolt. Cracks appeared on the dome, spreading outwards from the point of impact amid Hamelin's uttered oath of surprise.

"Get the bastard!" Glory Girl cheered, ignoring the chiding 'Language!' from her mother and aunt.

As if she had heard the tiara-wearing Cape's encouragement, Justitia drew her sword back and swiped hard at the barrier, shattering it. Miss Militia, who had entered just then, peered at the sword as it completed its arc.

"There was a glow around her weapon as she swung it." The heroine stated. "Some sort of Striker effect?"

"Her powers are like an RPG game character." Kid Win repeated. "This includes Character Classes. The one she's using right now is **[Swordswoman]** , which gives her the ability to use a sword, as well as 'Skills' involving a sword. The two that she used just now she referred to as 'Blade Charge' and 'Blade Sweep' which are seemingly basic moves that increase the power of the strikes."

Powers, Piggot sighed to herself, were so entirely _bizarre_.

"What I want to know is how we are seeing all of this." Armsmaster rumbled as Hamelin and Justitia clashed repeatedly on the screen. "Dragon, any ideas?"

" _The signal is being beamed straight to the PRT Building and funneled down through the network to this TV set._ " Dragon spoke from another screen on the wall. " _I have no clue how it's getting here or where it is coming from. Judging from the reports of captured Tinkers that the Wards brought back, I would guess that the tech comes from one of them. I wouldn't even_ begin _to know how to reverse-track it._ "

" _Terrific_." Piggot groaned. She was going to have to put _everyone_ through Master/Stranger Protocols, wasn't she? She really should do it now, but knew that the Wards and the two youngsters from New Wave were going to want to see this through to the end.

Onscreen, Hamelin had been forced back by Justitia's advance until he suddenly flew up, a shimmering shield surrounding his body as he took off. One that made Glory Girl howl in indignity.

"That's _my_ goddamn power!"

" _That's Glory Girl's powerset you're using!_ " Justitia exclaimed onscreen. " _She was only ever asleep here, not unconscious! How do you have her powers!?_ "

" _Unconscious can mean a lot of things, girl._ " Hamelin sneered down at her. " _I_ fully _usurp their powers if someone is knocked out in my dimension, trapping them like that unless woken by an external source. If someone just sleeps here, I usually gain at least some of their powers; although it is both temporary in the extreme and significantly weaker. As Glory Girl is a mere_ imitation _Alexandria Package, she is not my first choice to use, but needs must when demons drive!_ "

With him swooping all over the place now, firing off various solid light constructs as projectiles, Justitia was having a much harder time of it now.

" _What's the matter 'Justitia'?_ " he gloated. " _Can't fly, can you?_ "

"Smug bastard." Panacea muttered, ignoring the look from Brandish at that.

Justitia dodged and slashed at the flying objects, deflecting them, but didn't manage to avoid a couple, which slammed into her side, sending her flying. She recovered in mid-air though and managed to land on her feet before tearing off towards the town.

"Smart thinking." Lady Photon nodded in approval. "Hamelin isn't used to being a flier, so Justitia will be able to use his inexperience against him in the more restricted environment of the town."

"The place is made of cheap wood and badly built brick." Glory Girl disagreed. "I coulda smashed through it easy. So could Aegis."

"And thus so can Hamelin…still, he isn't used to being a Flier or a Brute." Her aunt persisted. "Hamelin has displayed Shaker and ground-based Mover powers, not to mention the Tinkertech screens you told me about earlier, but no Brute or flight-based Mover powers. It takes quite some time to become accustomed to them, as you well know. That inexperience may prove beneficial to your new friend, Glory Girl."

" _Get back here!_ " Hamelin shouted and fired off coloured blasts that had Gallant cursing.

"My emotional blasts! Damn, this sucks." The empath grumbled. His girlfriend patted his shoulder in sympathy.

"This is highly unpleasant to watch." Miss Militia was twitching with every close hit that the Independent Heroine dodged on the screen. "Dragon, isn't there _any_ way to track this dimension's entry aperture down?"

" _I wish there were._ " The Tinker sounded just as frustrated as Miss Militia felt. " _Dimensional Tinkertech is hard to come by, so Masamune and myself haven't had the chance to analyze any. There_ was _one Tinker in Canberra who was skilled at dimensional phenomena and would have been more than willing to help, but he either died or got turned into a Ziz Bomb in last month's Endbringer attack._ "

"Dammit…" Miss Militia cursed.

The rest of the room ignored the interplay between the Tinker and Heroine, focusing instead on the battle onscreen, as the brown-clad heroine reached the outskirts of the town.

 _With Justitia_

I panted as I practically flew through the gates of the town. It was so damn unfair that he now had access to the powers of all of the Wards, Glory Girl and Panacea. Not only that, he was able to mix and match them, because Gallant sure as hell couldn't fly without his armour and I'm pretty damn sure those glowy beams were his!

"Get back here!" Hamelin roared from above and behind me. Jeez, what an obstinate dickhead!

With him able to fly now, I had to improvise. Restrict his flying space with the buildings, as I doubt he wants to destroy the walls that he built (however sloppily built they may be) and have to go through the ordeal of rebuilding them later.

I ducked into the alley between the first couple of buildings I found and broke through the window of the one to my left. It was a multi-story building (how did Hamelin build these, anyway?), so there were at least three floors including the roof.

"Accursed child! Come out so I can take your power!"

Fat chance of that happening, bub.

I rushed up the steps to the roof as quickly and quietly as I could and peered out, seeing that he was floating in the middle of the street, randomly shooting the buildings around him with Gallant's Blaster power. Oh, how I _wished_ that I could fly.

Fortunately, my improved physical stats meant that roof hopping was a very real possibility. After ducking, jumping and hiding, I put more power into a jump and leapt at Hamelin, sword drawn back. He wheeled around just in time for me to score a cut right across his neck that would have ripped his throat out had Glory Girl's shield not stopped the blade of my weapon. I managed to grab onto his arm before I sped past him and used his free-floating form as leverage to throw myself above him again, raining blow after blow down onto his body as I did even as the sudden force jerked the asshole around midair.

Glory Girl had explained to me that most of her defensive Brute power came from a personal forcefield that manifested around her and let her mimic the invincibility of an Alexandria-type. A certain amount of damage over a period of time, or a lot of damage all at once, was what it took to bring it down, and it took a handful of seconds to regenerate and restore itself, long enough for someone to do serious damage if they were quick enough.

This had been after a couple of giant rats had clawed her leg in the outer chambers. Now I was using that knowledge against Hamelin. The shield finally broke and I scored a shallow cut down his chest. As I drew the sword back for another strike, he finally exploded at me.

" **ENOUGH!** "

In an instant, the space between us was several meters wide…Vista's power. I spun and landed on the roof that Hamelin had conveniently positioned me over. I noted that he had rushed to the ground awfully quickly there. Had my hammering caused him to burn through Glory Girl's power quicker than he expected? He did say that the amount of power he took from people who were simply sleeping was way smaller than if they were unconscious, so it was possible. If so, good, one potentially killer power, down and out.

"What's the matter, Pied Piper? Running out of juice?" I called at him as I moved to the edge of the roof. Although his face was in the dark from the shadow of his hood, I could tell that he was glowering at me. And, judging by how he hadn't blasted me with Gallant's emotion lasers, his earlier temper tantrum had run through all of his Gallant juice as well.

"Stumble in the darkness!" he hissed and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded in a cloud of darkness. Right, this was Grue's power, Gallant had mentioned it while we were waiting for the Undersiders to recover. He'd described it as an obscuring cloud that was impossible to see through even with thermals and night-vision, but I also noticed that sounds were distorted and I had no sense of where anything was either.

Fortunately, I had a counter to this situation. I raised my sword above my head and activated one Iustitia's powers I hadn't had a chance to really use yet. " **[Justice is Blind]!** "

With a hum of power, my sword's blade glowed white, visible even amidst the darkness, and I heard a shout of panic as the power of Grue's darkness was also inflicted on him, along with the sound distortion effect. So **[Justice is Blind]** did work on Shaker powers. Good to know.

Apparently realizing that I'd somehow inflicted his power back on him, Hamelin dispelled the darkness on me, which also removed it from himself. He was standing slightly closer than when I had last seen him and was _definitely_ glaring up at me now.

' _I_ _think he might be a_ touch _peeved at you, Mistress._ ' Iustitia opined.

' _No_ _shit._ ' I thought back quickly.

"You have a set of scales that decreases the strength of your enemies, a sword that can somehow reflect powers back at their user and a club that hits like a Brute…what the hell _are_ you?!" Hamelin demanded.

"Your worst nightmare." I shot back before leaping at him from the top of the building with my sword raised. In response, Hamelin created a sword out of light and raised it to parry. We clashed, with me getting thrown back at the same time as his sword shattering.

"Dammit…that's _three_ powers used up already!" Hamelin hissed quietly, but I was still able to hear him.

Ha! Looks like he used up the last of Lightray's power too. Three down, who knows how many more to go. The joy.

"You…" Hamelin glowered at me. "I am going to make _you_ pay for this!"

"I would like to see you try." I scoffed, flashing a smirk at him that I knew was starting to drive the asshole berserk. "So far all you've done is run around like an idiot blasting things randomly with powers you only barely know the basics of. I've already got your number pal, you rely on surprise to kidnap your targets then use a Mover power to get away before anyone notices. right? Then all you have to do is let your little pets wear your targets down until they're out and you have a sparkly new toy to play with. I'm betting this is the first time you've had to fight yourself. Am I right?"

The twitch of one hand betrayed just how accurately my guess had landed. What a _waste_ of such a flexible power. What I could do with it…

I shook my head slightly. If wishes were fishes, we'd all be eating seafood. I was happy with Iustitia and my power was kicking Hamelin's ass at the moment.

"DIE!" he shouted, charging towards me, obviously drawing on the power of another flier now that the small reserve of Glory Girl's power he had possessed was used up. Aegis' power, perhaps?

My **[Swordsman's Eye]** skill told me he was going to launch a punch at my head, so I ducked and stabbed upwards, impaling his arm with Iustitia's sword form, eliciting a strangled snarl of pain from Hamelin. I then twisted it around and ripped it free of his arm, which annoyingly started to regenerate. One of the Capes he had captured must have been a regenerator. How irritating.

"Precognition now? Just how many powers do you _have_?!" he snarled. I realised quickly that he was tapping into Tattletale's own power now, which was a pain. From what little had been said about it, she could kind of cold-read people with frightening accuracy.

"More than you think and less than I want." I jibed at him. Then we got back to trying to beat each other senseless. Unfortunately, he kept getting under the reach of my sword when he was this close to me, so I decided to show him my _close_ close combat weapon.

"Iustitia, Form Shift!" I called out as I back-pedaled away from a sloppy roundhouse kick that likely had enough power to take my head off. "Form Two!"

"Aye, Mistress!" Iustitia cried and, in a blaze of light, my tipstaff appeared in my hand, replacing the sword and scales. With a shout, I used the club skill **[Mighty Blow]** and slammed the club into Hamelin's body before he could fully recover his balance, sending him back several meters and right into a wall. I winced when the wall collapsed on top of him.

' _Iustitia, exactly how low is my stamina right now?_ ' I asked silently.

' _You have less than 800 Stamina remaining, Mistress._ ' My Embryo replied instantly.

I blinked in surprise. I'd only been fighting for just over three minutes! ' _How_ _exactly did my Stamina deplete so fast? I fought against giant rats and the humanoid projections for longer than this before my Stamina dropped so low!_ '

' _Your_ _Stamina started dropping sharply while you and Hamelin were taunting each other earlier Mistress. I suspect that one of the capes Hamelin previously kidnapped possesses some form of life-force or stamina draining ability and the cur attempt to use it to try and knock you unconscious before the fight even began._ ' Iustitia answered simply. ' _Even_ _now, the Stamina consumption is almost double what it normally is, though the effect is continuing to weaken, so it is likely running low on power as well. Thankfully you are wearing the helm that you received from the_ **[Rat King of Hamelin]** _,_ s _o the power of his Shaker Effect was reduced greatly as well._ '

Sneaky bastard. Guess he didn't hear me talking to the Wards earlier about what my **[Cudgel of the Law]** could do. Wearing down my stamina was a Bad Idea thanks to this bad boy -or bad _girl_ as it's Iustitia- of a club.

"RAAAGGGHHH!" Hamelin roared in fury as he forced his way out of his temporary prison. His cloak was ripped and torn in places and several small trickles of blood were visibly seeping from cuts and wounds all over his body. I also noticed that although he was straightening, he was also being very careful about it. Looks like whatever regenerator whose power he is using either isn't very strong or that particular battery was running low as well.

"I'll kill you! I don't even _care_ about your power anymore!" Hamelin shrieked, now completely enraged beyond all reason. "I'll kill you, then track down and torture your family to death! Yes… _then_ you'll regret getting in my way. It'll serve you right!"

Ice and fear seized my heart in a death grip. He could do it, if for no other reason than he knew what I looked like underneath my mask and helmet. If he got away, he would keep his word. He'd discover my real name. He'd track down my Dad, my only living family. And he would kill me, then him.

 _ **No.**_

"No you won't." I snarled back. "I'll end your threat here, once and for all!"

This actually seemed to amuse him. "Foolish girl. If I die, this dimension will collapse." He scoffed. "And even if you somehow _miraculously_ manage to escape, the useless PRT and Protectorate will pursue you for murder!"

"Justified self-defense." I growled back. "Plus, I _really_ wouldn't be surprised if you have a Kill Order on you by now. Kidnapping Wards AND Panacea in broad daylight? If New Wave isn't leading the charge for a Kill Order for you, I'd be very surprised."

Now he was veering back to being angry. "My goal is a short distance away and you dare to stand in my path." Hamelin snarled. "I shall not allow it!"

"What the hell even _is_ your goal?!" I demanded.

"I seek the deaths of every S-Class and A-Class Parahuman on the North American Continent." The robed lunatic stated fervently. "Hero, villain, rogue…I don't _care_ what they call themselves. A fight between A-Class Capes killed my family! Then the Slaughterhouse Nine rolled in and murdered my girlfriend! They'll pay! They _all_ have to PAY!"

Uh-oh. Houston, we have a nutcase here. He was mad…mad with grief and loss.

Suddenly, Hamelin's form shifted, blurred and then several more Hamelins appeared in a circle around me. I looked around wildly. A _cloning_ power?! What fresh hell was this?!

Raising their hands, the clones plus the original fired chunks of ice that appeared from nowhere at me! I dodged a lot of them, but one dinged off my helmet and sent me to my knees, dazed. It was then that Hamelin's clones vanished and I was hit with an ice boulder the size of a hotdog cart.

I think I blacked out for a moment because I was abruptly looking up at the ceiling, feeling a lot of pain. I stared blankly at the mass of rock above me for a moment.

' _Iustitia?_ ' I asked weakly.

' _MISTRESS!_ _You're OK! Thank any god that exists!_ ' my Embryo yelled in relief. ' _You_ _were only unconscious for a minute or so. Hamelin himself is exhausted and has not yet come at you again._ '

' _HP?_ ' I enquired.

' _Less_ _than fifty._ ' Iustitia answered. ' _Apparently, being struck while afflicted with_ **[Dazed]** _raises the damage you receive by a set percentage. Were it not for your armoured costume and new helm, you would be defeated right now._ '

Perfect. Just great. I made a note to ask why she referred to it a 'defeated' as opposed to 'dead' at a later time.

I groaned aloud and shakily, carefully, sat up. Looking around, I saw Hamelin whip his head up and around to stare at me in disbelief.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" he shouted. "No one who loses consciousness in my dimension through artificial means can ever wake up on their own! What are you?!"

"As I said before…your worst nightmare." I answered in a pained voice as I once more staggered to my feet, **[Cudgel of the Law]** in hand. I personally suspected that it had been Iustitia who had woken me up with her frantic calling, but I'd figure it out later.

"You…!" he seethed before visibly forcing himself to remain calm. "No…it doesn't really matter. Your left arm is broken, at the very least and I imagine simply standing up is painful for you. No matter what you do, it's hopeless."

Blinking, I looked down at my left arm and sure enough, it was broken halfway down the forearm. Looks like my **[Pain Resistance]** Skill was helping at this point, along with the adrenaline rush.

What he said was a bit true; I was far too badly wounded to attempt close combat again. I had a plan though, and communicated it to Iustitia at the speed of thought.

Hamelin stated to wearily walk forward, shaping a sword out of ice as he went. "I give you praise for pushing me to this extent. No one has done so in my entire time as a Cape. Any last requests?"

"Yeah…as a matter of fact, I do." I drawled. "Stay still."

Quick as a flash, the tipstaff vanished from my hand, which then flew into my pouch and withdrew Kid Win's Laser Pistol. I levelled it at Hamelin, feeling everything going into slow motion as I did it.

"Gun beats sword, you son of a bitch." I said coldly before I pulled the trigger.

 _ **Tsshew!**_

Red light burst from the muzzle of the weapon, which was still set to lethal mode, and stabbed through the space between Hamelin and me, piercing through the center of his hood and out the back in a blink of an eye. Just as I was, he was too spent from using so many powers one after the other, especially after that last trick. He couldn't move fast enough. Hell, even with his health and energy at max, there was one thing he couldn't do.

Outrun light.

The hood fell back as Hamelin's body collapsed, revealing the face of a middle-aged man. Clean shaven, a little too thin, a slight overbite and a weak chin. He looked like any guy you would see walking down the street…aside from the gaping hole through the center of his face.

A second later, time went back to normal and Hamelin's corpse hit the ground with a dull thud.

 **You have slain the Unique Boss Monster [Hamelin, the Pied Piper]! You gain 1500 EXP!**

 **Generating Boss Loot…generated!**

 **You receive [Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper]!**

I clapped a hand over my mouth as my gorge rose. I had just _killed_ someone. Granted, it was kill or be killed, but still…

 **[Congratulation!]**

 **You have levelled up! Your level has automatically been assigned a class due to the manner in which you slew the boss!**

 **You are now a [Gunslinger] (LV2)!**

 **[Dexterity] Stat unlocked! Starting Dexterity: 15!**

 **You gain 20 Dexterity!**

 **You gain 20 Wisdom! (10 from Gunslinger Class, 10 from Iustitia, Maiden of Justice)**

 **You gain 10 Intelligence!**

 **You gain the [Quickdraw] Skill!**

 **You gain the [Improved Accuracy] Skill!**

 **It is highly suggested that you equip your new cloak at once, as the dimension you are in is about to collapse!**

Shaking my head, I realized that the voice was right; the entirety of the cavern was… _melting_ , for lack of a better term. I hurriedly pulled my mirror out and had a look at the cloak in question.

 **[Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper]**

 **Rarity: Epic**

 **A cloak formed from the Parahuman power of Hamelin, the Pied Piper. One of his powers was the ability to create, sustain and travel to and from a dimensional pocket. This cloak allows the wearer to travel to any pocket dimension they are aware of, as well as return to where they entered the pocket. It also increases the wearer's stats by a modest margin and has two known active abilities and one unknown ability.**

 **Worn Ability: [Dimension Step]: Simply by focusing on the dimensional pocket you wish to enter, you can take a step forward and be there. To leave, simply picture your entry location and step.**

 **Active Ability #1: [Dimensional Shift]: Allows the user to 'shift' to any location within ten meters of themselves. Ten second cooldown after use.**

 **Active Ability #2: [Dimension Warping Barrier]: Creates a barrier to protect that exists in three separate dimensions at once and is able to withstand a tank's main cannon firing at it for five minutes straight. Five minute cooldown after use.**

 **Active Ability #3: [?]: Unknown.**

I equipped it, replacing the rat one, and a knee-length cloak appeared over my shoulders. It shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow and was (somehow) fluttering in a breeze that didn't exist. Great, I've got a _dramatic_ piece of equipment.

Taking a deep breath, I dredged up the sidewalk I'd been walking along when Hamelin had picked me up. Taking one last look at the Cape -the first man- that I had killed, I concentrated hard on that road and sidewalk and stepped forwards.


	8. Session 1-8

**Author's Note: Yo. So this is the very last chapter I have pre-written for Justice For All. You know what this means?**

 **Yup, new chapters starting the next time JFA is due to update. It'll be cool. See you next time, in Quest 2.1!**

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Session 1.8**

 _That Night_

 _Living Room, Hebert Residence_

So then, let's just review the day I've had so far. First, I'd been kidnapped by a powerful, amoral, vengeance-mad Parahuman. After being grabbed off the street by said sleazy nutbar, I'd been forced to spend the next few hours fighting for my life against a seemingly endless army of giant rats and humanoid projections, culminating in a life-or-death duel against the technicolor crazy Hamelin himself. Said duel had nearly resulted in me losing my life at least three times and had culminated in a last-ditch trick using a borrowed laser pistol to _Indiana Jones_ the bastard.

So yeah, it had been a terrifying, stressful, and utterly _exhausting_ day, and that was before I'd gotten home only to find an even _more_ arduous task. Dad had apparently noticed I had gone missing during the event and I had walked into home still wearing my scavenged armor. So, I'd been forced to come clean about everything.

Rather predictably, Dad had _not_ taken it well. He was currently pacing a path in the carpet, trying to keep his temper under control. He didn't blame me for getting kidnapped (though I think he was might peeved at some of the calculated risks I took), so he was likely just trying to get over me getting dragged into that insanity just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Of all the…! Could've been _killed_ …!" I heard him muttering. It was probably going to take a while for him to work all that misplaced, targetless anger out of his system, so, rather than simply sitting around and stewing in my guilt about worrying him, I decided to focus on something a bit more productive: my stats.

 **Name: Taylor Hebert**

 **Cape Name: Justitia**

 **Gender: Female**

 **Level: 10**

 **Title: None (*)**

 **Job (s): (1) Swordsman (LV6)**

 **(2) Maceman (LV2)**

 **(3) Gunslinger (LV2)**

 **EXP: 273/700**

 **Embryo: Maiden of Justice Iustitia**

 **Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms**

 **Embryo Forms Achieved: 2/7**

 **Stats**

 **HP: 840**

 **STA: 2800**

 **MP: 425**

 **Strength: 52**

 **Toughness: 50**

 **Endurance: 52**

 **Dexterity: 35**

 **Intelligence: 80**

 **Wisdom: 85**

 **Luck: ?**

Overall, I was kinda impressed with my stats here. My HP, Stamina and MP had all risen dramatically; for some reason the normal bonuses from my attributes going up hadn't been applied to them until after I had left Hamelin's Dimension Pocket, but Iustitia had stated that the strange energy permeating Hamelin's dimension, created by his 'power leeching' ability of draining and storing the powers of his kidnapped capes, had interfered with my own abilities. She had assured me that she could adjust to bypass such interference in the future while I rested tonight, so it was good for me.

My mental stats were, bluntly put, awesome. I could practically feel my brain working faster than normal, and I hadn't exactly been an academic slouch before. Physically, I was much improved, so much so that I was starting to worry about how I was going to control my own strength. The last thing I wanted to do was break dad's spine the next time I tried to hug him or ripped off some random door and out myself as a parahuman.

' _As_ _an Embryo Master, you should have an instinctive control of how much your Stats affect you, Mistress._ ' Iustitia informed me helpfully, having caught wind of my worries. ' _You_ _could no more use your newfound power to harm another by accident than you could unmake the sun._ '

Huh. Good to know.

As for my new skills, the one I got with my brand new **[Gunslinger]** class, **[Quickdraw]** , was kind of like a purely mental speed boost. From the combat initiated until the first shot was fired, my mind would process everything at superspeed, making everything (including myself) seem to move in slow motion, allowing me to draw and aim my first shot with perfect clarity and control. In addition, it also granted a boost to my Dexterity for that first attack. Dexterity, as it so happened, not only influenced my accuracy but my draw speed; making my first shot even faster.

Dexterity also added several other, smaller bonuses to things like my hit chance and control with close combat weapons and my chances of inflicting critical hits.

 **[Improved Accuracy]** was only active if I had a projectile weapon equipped and it gave me a small bonus to my Dexterity based on my **[Gunslinger]** class' level. Like **[Swordsman]** and **[Maceman]** , **[Gunslinger]** was a common job, with the Rare Jobs including things like **[Cowboy]** and **[Deputy]** , while the Superior Jobs included **[Lone Ranger]** and **[Gundancer]**.

"…aylor! Taylor!" Dad's voice interrupted my musings and I looked up at him tiredly.

"Hmm?" I looked up from my slight daze. Dad had apparently calmed down enough to stare at me while I zoned out. Letting out a jaw-cracking yawn, I offered him an apologetic smile. "Sorry Dad, I'm feeling bone-dead tired after everything that's happened."

The anger and anxiety on his face softened, and then broke completely as he reflexively yawned too. It was past one in the morning, after all, and neither of us had had anything approaching a normal day thanks to Hamelin.

"OK Little Owl, to bed with you." He said with a sigh. "I'll call in sick for you tomorrow and when I get home, we are going to have a talk about all of this…OK?"

Translation: A lecture on 'Why Taylor's going to join the Wards as soon as the paperwork can be signed' by Daniel 'Danny' Hebert.

I wasn't necessarily against the idea for the _most part_ , but…

"OK Dad. Thanks." I smiled up at him and staggered up to my bedroom, stopping off in the bathroom to clean my teeth and perform the usual last minute ablutions before going to bed.

' _The_ _Wards, aside from Aegis, seemed to be nice people._ ' Iustitia noted as I happily snuggled into my bed. I was never going to take soft sheets and a warm duvet for granted again. ' _Why_ _are you so hesitant about joining them?_ '

I struggled with that for a moment, trying to put my confused feelings into words. ' _Because…because the Wards aren't_ really _Capes. They dress the part, sure, and they do get flung into the thick of things every now and again, as today proved, but the main reason they're Wards is twofold; protection and training. Protection from being strong-armed into joining the gangs or killed by them, and given training in how to use their powers. We don't need training in how to use my powers, so the last one's flop for us._ '

' _But_ _alone, against the combined might of the lawbreakers in this city, we are vulnerable._ ' Iustitia pointed out softly. ' _They_ _would overwhelm us with weight of numbers._ '

' _If we strode into battle against them as I did against Hamelin's monsters, then yes._ ' I conceded as I stared at the ceiling thoughtfully. ' _But_ _unlike in that dimensional pocket, we don't kill here, Iustitia. Not unless they have a Kill Order on their heads or it's to protect innocent lives. Plus, the gangs are disorganized unless a serious threat shows up. All we have to do is spread our actions out across all of them so it doesn't look as if we're going after them fanatically. Weaken them a bit at a time, keep striking without making ourselves a target. We might not be able to beat them on our own, but we can make a difference and, eventually, the PRT and Protectorate will be able to deliver the finishing blow._ '

' _You_ _have put a great deal of thought into this, Mistress._ ' My Embryo said without any surprise in her mental 'voice.'

' _When_ _my life's gonna be on the line, of course I'm going to._ ' I scoffed.

' _There's_ _something more, isn't there?_ ' the Maiden Embryo pressed.

' _Yes._ ' I admitted. ' _The_ _Wards, as I noted, are not combat Capes by design or intent, usually. They fight every now and again in other cities, but they get more than their fair share of combat in Brockton Bay. That still means they are kept away from actually fighting crime as much as possible. I want to make a difference, Iustitia. I want to uphold justice. But the Protectorate has been failing at it from lack of manpower for years. In this case…I think justice needs to stand alone in order to be effective._ '

There was silence for a moment before Iustitia started to laugh.

' _Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Indeed! Let us stand alone and enact justice on this city, Mistress!_ '

 **[Embryo Evolution! Third Stage Evolution Confirmed!]**

 **Mapping all 504 evolutionary paths…**

 **Selecting best possible evolution for Embryo Master's will and determination…**

… **Completed.**

 **Third Form: [The Lone Gun and Star of Frontier Justice]!**

…what?

Blinking in disbelief, I materialized Iustitia's Third Form in my hand. It resembled an old-fashioned six-shooter revolver from the Old West made out of gleaming silver metal, except it was blocky and rectangular as opposed to cylindrical, with the only exception being the ammo cylinder, which was still round. Also, the whole thing was glowing with ethereal silver light.

I also felt a slight weight on my chest and looked down, seeing a five-pointed silver star pinned to my pajamas over my heart. It had the sword and scales symbol of Iustitia's First Form engraved into the center.

' _OK…so what can these bad boys do?_ ' I asked my Embryo.

' _Each_ _possesses two abilities, for a total of four._ ' Iustitia replied. ' _The_ _star has_ **[One Riot, One Ranger]** _and_ **[Always Alone, Never Put To Flight]** _,_ _while the revolver has a standard ability to automatically reload ten seconds after the last chamber is emptied, as well as_ **[Silver Bullet to Strike Down Villainy]** _and_ **[The Bullet Strikes True]** _._ '

 **[One Riot, One Ranger]** was similar to **[Order in the Court]** in that it let me deal extra damage when faced with multiple enemies. The main difference was that it was a set amount that was granted whenever I was faced with any more than a single enemy at a time. It also offered some impressive bonuses to my Defense and Dexterity at the same time.

 **[Always Alone, Never Put To Flight]** was a Passive Skill that applied subtle pressure to those who fought me. The more enemies I faced and the longer I fought them, the greater this pressure would become until they would eventually break down and run…at least those who weren't strong minded or strong willed. Or even just plain stubborn. It also had a secondary effect that boosted my Dexterity and Damage whenever I was targeting someone that was touched by this skill, and every time I managed to deal damage the pressure on the target would increase.

 **[Silver Bullet to Strike Down Villainy]** could only be used once per day, which kind of sucked, but in exchange it had a _very_ powerful effect. In order to use it, I had to successfully shoot the enemy I wanted to target with the skill at least once before invoking the skill. Once active, all of my attacks against that target, for the rest of the day, would deal **triple** damage against it, even if I switched to another Form of Iustitia. The downside was that if I did use it, I was then prohibited from attacking the target for five minutes afterwards and it used exactly half of my Stamina, regardless of the actual amount of Stamina I had, in order to invoke the skill.

 **[The Bullet Strikes True]** was a rather useful skill as well. I could spend Stamina or MP in order to make trick shots that would strike only what I wanted them to strike. I could designate the weapons, even a specific part of the weapons, and my bullets would ricochet around until they hit that part. Of course, obstacles could be interposed in the melee of combat, so keeping things as simple as possible was the best idea.

That wasn't all. When Iustitia advanced to her Third Form, the range and strength of the abilities of the other two forms were increased. Not by much, just an extra ten meters, range-wise, and another five points apiece, power wise. Still, I'd take any kind of bonus in a fight, no matter how small.

Letting Iustitia return to her crest in my hand, I started to feel really drowsy. What a day it had been! I was so going to sleep until midday tomorrow.

As I dropped off, I remembered that I still had Kid Win's Laser Pistol in my inventory. I made a note to find a way to return it at some point, with my thanks. It would have been much, much more difficult to defeat Hamelin without it.

 _The Next Day_

 _Director's Office, PRT Building_

Feeling very much refreshed after a good night's sleep and a session with the dialysis machine, Emily Piggot now faced the issue of exactly what to do about Justitia, the new Independent Hero who had, she admitted privately to herself, gone above and beyond the call of duty in saving the Wards, the Undersiders and the two youngest members of New Wave.

"So." She said to Armsmaster and Miss Militia, who were standing in front of her desk along with Deputy Director Renick. "Opinions of the Power Ratings for each of Justitia's known abilities? Let's start with those demonstrated by her 'sword form.'"

"The counter-Shaker skill she uses with the sword is almost certainly a Shaker/Trump effect." Miss Militia mused aloud, leafing through her own notes, and deciding to start with the most basic power they'd heard about. "I'd rate it at Trump/Shaker 3 at least for both range and utility."

"Hm." Armsmaster nodded in agreement, before offering his analysis on the other aspect of that powerset. "The physical ability reduction field she has is a pure Shaker effect though. Shaker 5 or 6. However, since it seems to be mostly designed to counter opponents stronger than her, and can in fact bolster weaker enemies if they're caught in the AoE, could make it a bit problematic to use in larger-scale conflicts. One-on-one against a physically superior foe, its tactical value is immense, but those kinds of fights are few and far between."

"Too _much_ physical ability is sometimes worse than too _little_ , especially if you aren't used to it." Miss Militia countered. "Imagine a baseline human being hit with that and then trying to jump; he'd put himself into a wall. Even a Parahuman would be thrown off balance with that power."

Piggot nodded in agreement. Miss Militia may have turned down the post of Head of the Protectorate ENE due to her disinclination to lead, but she was a very smart and analytical woman without being smug about it.

"Very well. So noted." She entered the rating onto her computer. "And the 'tipstaff' that she possesses?"

"Both abilities she has displayed with it are passive effects that synergize so well together that they may as well be a single power." The Tinker stated clinically, not even looking at his notes. Knowing him, the workaholic had likely memorized the entire document already. "The ability to inflict greater damage when faced by multiple opponents and the ability to amplify the strength of their attacks the more physical stamina you have used up until that point, as well as slowing down the rate at which you expend physical stamina. I'd agree with Kid Win in that combined, it's a Trump/Striker 5. It also synergizes remarkably well with her 'sword and scale' form, one designed to best work in one on one combat, while the other works best when facing multiple enemies."

"I'd rate it slightly higher if she is faced by large numbers of enemies." Miss Militia demurred. "If she was using it when confronted by thirty or so of the ABB or Empire…"

"Yes, agreed. I'll enter it as Trump/Striker 5 (Variable)." The Director nodded. Ratings with 'Variable' in them usually meant that the upper limits of the power either hadn't been plumbed (in the case of Protectorate or Affiliated Capes) or hadn't been witnessed (in the case of Villains, Rogues and Independents). They were usually quite rare, as powers were rarely as flexible or as nebulous as Justitia's powerset seemed to be.

' _And_ _she apparently has five more unknown weapon 'evolutions' that she hasn't accessed yet._ ' The Director shuddered slightly. The variation in the powers that Justitia showed was impressive, but the speed at which she was becoming stronger was also troubling.

"And finally…her 'RPG' powerset." Emily asked evenly. That had been the most difficult part to believe, but she was going to assume it was at least _partially_ true.

"Trump/Shaker 10, easily." Armsmaster stated immediately. "It influences not only herself but her surroundings to a rather astonishing degree. The variation in her 'Job Classes' must allow her to change and adapt to her situation as and when it is required while the 'loot' generation provides an immense resource of materials to assist in her development. Given sufficient time and effort to develop herself, I could see her becoming Triumvirate-tier, even without her 'Embryo' at her side."

"Yes…her projection possesses a power of its own, so it seems." Piggot frowned. "Ranged healing, albeit at a far slower pace than Panacea." Then again Panacea wasn't considered the world's greatest healer for nothing. Most forms of powers that granted healing (which were immensely rare in and of themselves) were slow and/or weak in comparison.

"And it is dependent of Justitia's physical stamina to activate and maintain." Miss Militia pointed out. "We really don't have enough information to put a fully accurate rating on this one, but I'd rate it at as a Shaker 3 for now."

Emily sighed tiredly and nodded before sitting back in her comfortable chair. It was custom made for her and had been one of the few luxuries she indulged in at work, although it was really a necessity as her damaged and corpulent body wore out regular office chairs far too quickly.

"How is the M/S screening going?" she moved on. All of the Protectorate, Wards and New Wave who had watched the final confrontation between Hamelin and Iustitia the previous day had been put into Master/Stranger Protocols as soon as the feed had cut, including herself. It was now roughly time for everyone to leave, but she, Armsmaster and Miss Militia had been released a bit early to get some items on the agenda sorted out.

"Brandish is still furious." Renick said with a tired sigh. With her temporarily indisposed thanks to the Master/Stranger Protocols, he'd taken command of cleaning up the aftermath of Hamelin's attack. The man looked dead on his feet and likely hadn't slept at all last night.

One good thing about M/S Protocols, you literally had nothing better to do than catch up on your sleep.

"Bully for her." Piggot sniffed. "She and the rest of New Wave, are PRT affiliates; when they signed those papers they agreed to follow M/S Protocols as needed when the circumstances were deemed necessary. Anyone else?"

"No, the rest are resigned to the necessity of it, albeit unhappy about it." The PRT ENE Second in Command replied. "It's a good thing that Arcadia agreed to close for the day in the light of yesterday's events, otherwise there might have been questions asked about the Wards' presence. Vista's school accepted the sick note we requested her parents to sign for just such an emergency."

"Good. Any sign that anyone was Mastered?" Given the sheer number of Capes that the man had abducted (several of which they were still working on identifying) she wouldn't put it past the bastard to have some kind of brainwashing ability hidden under that ridiculous cloak of his.

"None." Armsmaster answered gruffly. "Hamelin seemed to have preferred going after less subtle powers aside from the occasional Thinker, such as Tattletale. Even then, they seemed more targets of opportunity than actual targets themselves. Of the roughly two dozen capes we've recovered, we've only identified two Thinkers so far. One lived in the same city as three other abductees so was likely taken when Hamelin was targeting them as well. The other was partnered with another victim, and was likely grabbed alongside their partner, much like Tattletale."

" _On the subject of Hamelin._ " Dragon suddenly pointed out, her projected image appearing on the monitor built into the wall.

"You found him?" Piggot asked sharply, ignoring the Tinker's sudden, unannounced arrival. Given the rather hectic state things were in right now, Emily would gladly ignore a bit of rudeness if it was accompanied by results

The world's foremost Tinker nodded grimly and a small photo of a man resembling Hamelin without the laser hole in the center of his face appeared on the screen to replace her face. Then a family picture replaced it.

" _His name was Anthony Lebowski, age thirty-nine._ " Dragon reported. " _Formerly a resident of Albany, Capital District, New York State. Married to Jessica Lebowski, 35, with three children, Angela, 10, Samuel, 7, and Mary-Jane, 3, respectively. Four years ago, the New York Protectorate, including Legend, fought against a large group of Elite led by Upperhand when they were attempting to establish a foothold in New York. A clash between Legend and Upperhand caused some form of feedback explosion that resulted in the destruction of several buildings, including the Lebowski residence, resulting in the death of Mr. Lebowski's wife, children, and parents who had apparently been visiting to celebrate one of their grandchildren's birthday. Two years and one month ago, the Slaughterhouse Nine, as you know, rampaged through Albany, resulting in the death of Mr. Lebowski's girlfriend, Emily Cole, at the hands of either Bonesaw or Shatterbird. It is uncertain at this time which event caused him to Trigger or if he Triggered both times and simply hadn't been active in the Cape scene in a noticeable way after the first event. He went missing a week after the Nine left. Two weeks later, the Independent Hero Mistral vanished without a trace. Mistral was one of the Capes recovered by the Wards from Hamelin's dimensional pocket._ "

"Dear god in heaven." Emily shook her head, doing her best to not feel pity for the crazy bastard. The man must have snapped after losing someone again after rebuilding his life from the first time. She opened a drawer and pulled out a red form that made the other occupants of the room stiffen slightly; a Kill Order authorization form.

"This form has been signed by Chief Director Costa-Brown, sanctioning the death of Hamelin." She said slowly. "I have also signed it, but not yet dated it. I am leaning towards making the time and date of the legal license to kill authorization yesterday, at the time that the Wards were abducted."

"Why haven't you dated it then?" Renick asked in surprise.

"Because I _also_ received a call from Alexandria yesterday, asking to do what I can to recruit Justitia into the Protectorate." Emily informed him. "I can only suppose that a Thinker informed her of who dealt with Hamelin. Opinions?"

"Do _not_ use the Kill Order as a threat to coerce her." Miss Militia advised immediately.

"She was the one who deliberately set things up as a one-on-one confrontation with him." The Director remarked as she picked up a pen and tapped it against the desk's surface.

"It was a no-win situation." Armsmaster disagreed. "Either Justitia betrayed the Wards, Undersiders and the two New Wave members in order to flee herself, or she stayed behind to let the others go free. She saw that and chose the option that saved as many people as was possible. She was clearly willing to die in order to stop Hamelin's rampage."

This made Piggot raise both eyebrows in surprise. Armsmaster was rarely the type to go against the wishes of those higher up on the food chain than he was. Alexandria's 'request' was a not-so subtle hint to use the Kill Order to apply pressure to Justitia in order to get her into the Wards ASAP. Generally speaking, a request from one of the Triumvirate was usually promptly followed through with, but in this case…

"Agreed." She nodded and scribbled down a specific date and time, indicating yesterday at five minutes to four. She also brought up the Kill Order's digital copy and entered the same numbers.

"Hamelin, the Pied Piper, was rated by Protectorate Thinkers as an A-Class Parahuman in terms of actual threat, but S-Class in terms of his allegorical and potential future threat level, so there is a substantial bounty ready to be released to Justitia for ending his threat, with the thanks of both the United States Government and the Parahuman Response Team." Emily Piggot said crisply. "All members of the Protectorate and Wards are directed to keep an eye out for the Independent Heroine Justitia so we can arrange the transfer of funds to an account for her use. Renick, please file this form in the Cold Vault."

She handed him the Kill Order Authorization Form, which was received very gingerly.

"Yes Director." Miss Militia nodded, Armsmaster a beat behind her.

"Good. Then get to it." She said in dismissal. She still had paperwork to do.


	9. Interlude 1-X

**Author's Corner**

 **SeerKing glared at his old computer before stomping back over to his desk and throwing himself into his chair.**

 **"Stupid motherboard." he muttered before looking up. "Oh, it's you lot! Well guess who's back with a brand new computer! Me, that's who!...not that I'm actually in any way** _ **happy**_ **about it."**

 **Gesturing at his old computer, the author frowned. "My old one was the first computer that I bought myself, and I owned it for ten years. No, I did not stutter. The motherboard died on it and, sadly, they no longer make ones compatible with my old computer, which sucked. It sucks because I** _ **loathe**_ **Windows 10. Seriously, who was it that had the bright idea to export a tablet OS to laptops and PC's? Stark raving mad, the lot of them."**

 **Shaking his head, SeerKing smirked. "I** _ **am**_ **getting back into the swing of things, however, and adjusting to my computer (and new word processor) as quickly as possible so I can keep giving you guys regular chapters. As an apology for my long, and unplanned, hiatus, today features a double release of Justice For All; this interlude and the first chapter of the new arc. I hope you enjoy the chapters and do me a favor by leaving a constructive review after reading them...preferable something a bit more than 'awesome!' or an emoji. While nice, a bit more than one word or emoticon is always nice to read. now, scroll down and get stuck in!"**

 **Interlude X.1 – Outsider Looking In**

 _Unknown Location_

"Well, well, well…that cerrrtainlyyy went betterrr than expected."

The speaker was a cat. To be precise, it was a white, bipedal cat wearing a vest and bow tie, and sitting on a white metal garden chair. Its tail twitched as it looked into a floating screen to one side.

This was Control AI #13, Cheshire, of the world of _Infinite Dendrogram_. And he, as he was indeed male, was watching one Taylor Anne Hebert sleep in her bed.

"What have you been up to, thirteen?" a voice spoke up from one side. Cheshire looked up to see a humanoid male with patches of black dragon scales and bestial leather crisscrossing its skin and devil-like horns emerging from his head.

"I just did what was expecteed, Jabberwock." Cheshire replied easily. "I aided a new playerr into the game and guided them."

Control AI #4, Jabberwock, scowled down at his feline coworker. "Your duty is to introduce new Masters into the world of _Infinite Dendrogram_ , not intervene in other worlds that aren't even remotely connected to it! I just got notification that one 'Swordswoman Taylor Hebert' defeated the Unique Boss Monster 'Pied-Piper Hamlin' in combat, and my automatic protocols generated loot for her."

"So it worked purrrrrfectly." Cheshire nodded in satisfaction.

"Thirteen, you had better explain yourself." The Control AI in charge of UBMs in Infinite Dendrogram said softly. "Or I will lock her out of the system."

The cat sighed and waved its forepaw, making an armchair appear. "Sit down and I will. Looking up at you makes even the neck bones of a cat ache."

Impatiently, the bestial-looking AI sat and waited.

"Did you happen to notice Taylor's Embryo, Jabberwock?" the cat asked.

"Yes…a Type-Maiden with Arms." Jabberwock nodded tersely. "Iustitia, Maiden of Justice."

"What are the chances of someone, the very first person in her world no less, to acquire a Type Maiden, hmm?" Cheshire asked rhetorically, as they both knew the actuarial probability of any person developing the rare Type-Maiden Embryo. Even among the millions of Masters that came to Infinite Dendrogram, less than one-hundred possessed a Type-Maiden.

"What of it? Even the laws of probability have to ring a jackpot every so often." Jabberwock replied.

"My point is that she _desperately_ needed power." Cheshire's face twisted in disgust. "She was trapped in filth enough that even the **[King of Plagues]** himself would gag at it. I could do nothing to help herrr, but some… _abomination_ …was reaching out to entrap her. It would have twisted her mind, Jabberwock. I knew of the situation; I couldn't very well _ignore_ it."

Begrudgingly, the UBM Control AI nodded. The Control AI's were supposed to help Masters, so Cheshire's logic there was sound. "Why not simply cut her off when you gave her the seed of the Embryo? Why tie her into our systems?"

"Because of a very simple reason." Cheshire replied. "Without being connected to the master system, there was a chance that her Embryo would not have formed beyond the 'egg' form. I have watched Taylor's actions and she needed, and _still_ needs, someone at her side, someone who will look out for her and guide her. That, I suspect, is a part of the reason that she gained a Type-Maiden, although I am certain the chance was equally good for her getting a Type-Guardian."

The various types of Embryos that existed were grouped into categories; Arms, Chariot, Castle, Guardian, Territory and Maiden. Out of all of them, Guardian and Maiden were the only ones who could give proper physical comfort and companionship to their Master-partners. Even then, Maidens were the only ones who were 100% going to have human forms; Guardians were typically monsters or machines of some sort.

One of the few exceptions was the Master called Rook, who had his Guardian Embryo Babylon, who looked very human. She was a succubus, however, and was named after the Whore of Babylon. Her taste in food (ice cream topped with chili sauce, for example) was very blasphemous and certainly lived up to her namesake. Cheshire had to shudder at the thought of _that_ particular combination of food.

"I can follow your logic thus far." Jabberwock conceded reluctantly. "But why continue to keep her hocked up to the system?"

"I checked and there's a proto-system growing in strength over on her world as she does." Cheshire smirked with catlike smugness. "Once Taylor, or Justitia as she calls herself, makes Iustitia evolve to her Sixth Form, whatever abomination it is that is twisting minds over there will have to race to grab someone before the system does."

"Her Embryo has been manifested for a couple of days at _most_." The other AI frowned. "Who knows how long it will be until she earns the Sixth Form of Iustitia?"

"She has already earned Iustitia's Third Form." Cheshire's smirk grew at the astonished expression on Jabberwock's face. "She shares the typical attitude of all Maiden Masters and truly lives as she fights. Granted, she is actually _living_ in her world rather than simply visiting using an Avatar like the Masters do, but the point remains. I feel that it will not be very long, a few months her side, a year or two at absolute _maximum_ , before she achieves her Embryo's Sixth Form."

That made Jabberwock pause slightly. A year at most…that was very quick. Iustitia had evolved from her First Form to her Third Form at a far more rapid pace than almost any Master in Infinite Dendrogram. The Second Form was usually fairly quick, but the accumulated experience needed for the Third form usually took a month (Dendro Time) or so, unless they were going through quests and monsters like crazy.

Unlike the passage of time between Infinite Dendrogram and the Earth it was connected to, where one day there was three in Infinite Dendrogram, the passage of time between the Earth where Taylor Hebert lived and Infinite Dendrogram was the opposite unless you used a screen and slowed it down to view events, as Cheshire was doing currently.

"So…another few months at absolute most from our side?" he asked carefully. At the other AI's nod, Jabberwock leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Very well. A _single_ other player won't put any strain on the servers for that long, and I'll help convince the other Control AI of that. I am curious though; exactly how did you discover young Miss Hebert and her Earth?"

"A small bug I was investigating after I last saw Ray Starling." The cat AI replied. "I cleared it up, and discovered a window looking in on young Taylor. I found I could run the Character Startup System on her, albeit minus the Character Creation and Equipment Bestowal sections. I hesitated to do anything before that dratted _abomination_ showed up."

"Is there any chance that this 'abomination' could come to Infinite Dendrogram?" Jabberwock asked seriously.

"I've placed several dozen firewalls and security measures around it, so I don't think so." Cheshire said with a shake of his head. "Feel free to place more if you wish. I think that whatever this abomination is, it either doesn't know about Taylor's Embryo or it thinks that Iustitia is just another expression of the mind twisting powers it hands out. Unless there are more people who connect to the main system from that Earth, I think we will be ignored by whatever the abomination is."

"Hm. I shall inspect your preparations." Jabberwock said with a nod. He would add several more extreme ones; Cheshire was not known for his aggressive nature when it wasn't warranted.

"Please don't add anything ludicrous." The cat said sharply.

"I still say that having a UBM with atomic breath would be good." Jabberwock muttered.

"Leave that idea aside!" Cheshire scolded him. "We have enough trouble with the Superior Unique Boss Monsters that we have running around the world as it is."

"As you say." The UBM AI shrugged. He just managed the UBMs, as well as designates any monsters that caught his interest as UBMs. What they did after that wasn't his business.

Once Jabberwock left, Cheshire gazed at the image of Taylor sleeping in her bed one last time before closing the window. He designated one subroutine of his to alert him if she did anything interesting.

' _One thing that Jabberwock forgot to ask was whether Taylor had any monsters to kill for EXP on her world._ ' He thought. ' _There aren't any, but my little interference in the item that she received from Hamlin should alter that. I wonder what she'll think of it once Iustitia finishes decoding the last skill on the cloak…?_ '

With a smile, Cheshire headed off to go about his duties.

 **End of Arc 1 Stats**

 **Name: Taylor Hebert**

 **Cape Name: Justitia**

 **Gender: Female**

 **Level: 10**

 **Title: None (*)**

 **Job (s): (1) Swordsman (LV6)**

 **(2) Maceman (LV2)**

 **(3) Gunslinger (LV2)**

 **EXP: 273/700**

 **Embryo: Maiden of Justice Iustitia**

 **Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms**

 **Embryo Forms Achieved: 3/7**

 **Stats**

 **HP: 840**

 **STA: 2800**

 **MP: 425**

 **Strength: 52**

 **Toughness: 50**

 **Endurance: 52**

 **Dexterity: 35**

 **Intelligence: 80**

 **Wisdom: 85**

 **Luck: ?**

 **Iustitia Forms and Skills**

 **Maiden Form:** **\- [Justice Over Earthly Authority] –** _ **Allows Iustitia to see any and all crimes committed by anyone she sees. No MP/Stamina cost.**_

 **\- [The People's Welfare Is Supreme] –** _ **Allows Iustitia to heal any wounded people within 10 Meters of herself. Injuries such as cuts, burns, bruises, lacerations, torn muscles, concussions and internal bleeding are affected. Poisons and their damaging effects are also undone. Costs 30 Stamina per 30 seconds active.**_

 **\- [MP Up] –** _ **A skill gained upon the evolution of Iustitia to her Second Stage. Raises MP slightly.**_

 **Form One - [Sword and Scales of Justice]** **\- A** _ **single-handed steel sword and one set of golden scales. Type Arms. Sword has a +30 Damage Modifier.**_

 **\- [Balance the Scales, LV3] –** _ **Grants the ability to alter the physical abilities of the enemy to match the user, either increasing or reducing their capabilities. Reducing the abilities of especially large or heavy enemies renders them unable to move under their own power. Increasing the abilities of weak enemies can make them damage themselves from over/underestimating their abilities. Range: 70 Meters.**_

 **\- [Justice is Blind, LV2] -** _ **Grants the ability to enforce any negative status effects that currently afflict the user onto any enemy within range. Range: 20 Meters.**_

 **Form Two – [Cudgel of the Law]** **–** _ **A single foot long tipstaff made of a metal**_ _ **that resembles white gold. Type Arms. The tipstaff has a +20 Damage Modifier.**_

 **\- [Order in the Court, LV2] –** _ **Grants the user increased damage based on the number of enemies that the user is facing, the more enemies there are, the more damage is inflicted. Has a secondary effect that makes the enemies struck with the [Cudgel] react as if the added damage was physical strength instead.**_

 **\- [The Law Stands Alone, LV2] –** _ **Grants the user increased damage based on how low the user's stamina bar is. The lower the stamina bar is, the more the user's damage is increased. Additionally, the rate of the user's**_ **[Stamina]** _ **consumption is reduced by 75% while the**_ **[Cudgel]** _ **is active.**_

 **Form Three – [The Lone Gun and Star of Frontier Justice]** **–** _ **A single revolver-type gun made of silvery metal and a silver star badge. The gun automatically reloads after ten seconds once emptied at the cost of 5 MP. Type Arms.**_

 **\- [One Riot, One Ranger] –** _ **Raises the user's damage output, Dexterity and Defense by a fixed amount when facing more than one enemy.**_

 **\- [Always Alone, Never Put to Flight] –** _ **Applies a Master Effect to the enemies of the user. When faced by multiple enemies, the more enemies there are and the longer the user fights. When facing anyone affected by the Skill, the user is granted extra Dexterity and Damage versus them.**_

 **\- [The Silver Bullet to Strike Down Villainy] –** _ **An Active Skill only usable once per day. In order for this skill to be used, the target has to have been shot by the gun at least once and they have to be within line of sight of the user. Once activate all attacks from the user, whether with the gun or one of the other forms of Iustitia or even a completely different weapon completely, deals double the damage to the target. In exchange for activating this skill, however, the user must sacrifice a flat half of their Stamina, regardless of the amount they have remaining, and they cannot attack for five minutes after the skill is successfully activated.**_

 **\- [The Bullet Strikes True] –** _ **Using either Stamina or MP, the user can perform trick shots. The bullets fired from the gun will ricochet off of surfaces and go through obstacles in order to strike the enemies at the angle and location the user desires. Only static obstacles are taken into account, so a moving body or device can and will interfere in the shots if the user is not careful.**_

 **Class Skills**

 **[** **Swordswoman]** **–** _ **A female Warrior who wields a sword in battle. Low-Rank Job.**_

 **\- [Blade Charge LV6] –** _ **A basic Instant Skill of a Swordsman that deals piercing damage. The damage is calculated by STR*2 + Weapon and Equipment Damage Modifiers + Modifiers from Skills + Modifiers from location struck. Costs 30 STA.**_

 **\- [Swordsman's Eye LV6] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill of a Swordsman that allows the user to predict attacks a few seconds in advance. Current Prediction Time: 6 seconds.**_

 **\- [First Health Boost LV6] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill of close combat classes that increases HP by 50 per Skill level.**_

 **\- [Sword Mastery LV6] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill of any sword-focused class that slightly ups the damage dealt when wielding a sword.**_

 **\- [Blade Sweep LV2] –** _ **A basic Instant Skill of a Swordsman that deals slashing damage. The damage is calculated by STR +10 + Weapon and Equipment Damage Modifiers + Modifiers from Skills + Modifiers from location struck. Costs 50 STA.**_

 **\- [Sword Arts Proficiency LV2] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill of a Swordsman that shows that the user is starting to master finesse with the blade as well as just pure hacking, slashing and stabbing. Slightly ups damage dealt while wielding a sword. Caps at LV10.**_

 **[Maceman]** **–** _ **A warrior who wields a blunt weapon in close combat. Low-Rank Job.**_

 **\- [Mighty Smash LV2] –** _ **A basic Instant Skill used by a Maceman that deals bludgeoning damage. The damage is calculated by STR +10 + Weapon and Equipment Damage Modifiers + Modifiers from Skills + Modifiers from location struck. Costs 50 STA.**_

 **\- [Buckler Mastery LV2] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill used by various classes that can use bucklers. The defensive abilities of a buckler are increased slightly.**_

 **\- [Second Health Boost LV2] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill of close combat classes that increases HP by 50 per level.**_

 **\- [Club Mastery LV2] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill used by and class that uses club-type weapons to deal damage. Increases the damage dealt by club-type weapons slightly.**_

 **[Gunslinger]** **–** _ **A combatant who uses a pistol, handgun or revolver to fight. Low-Rank Job.**_

 **\- [Quickdraw LV2] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill of pistol-using classes, this grants the user a mental speed boost from the start of combat to when they fire the first bullet. That first attack is also granted a DEX boost.**_

 **\- [Improved Accuracy] –** _ **A basic Passive Skill of classes focused on wielding projectile weaponry, it grants the user +5 DEX per Class Level while wielding a ranged weapon.**_

 **Personal Skills**

 **\- [Pain Resistance, LV2]** **–** _ **A general Passive skill earned from enduring physical pain on a daily basis. 5% of any pain inflicted is mitigated.**_

 **\- [Danger Sense]** **–** _ **A general Passive skill earned from justified paranoia. Grants a 1% chance to detect danger encroaching on you.**_

 **\- [Acting] -** _ **A general Passive skill earned from playing innocent to someone and getting them to believe your act. Increases chance that any lies or acts you put on are more successful.**_


	10. Quest 2-1

"Iustitia!" – Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' – Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice for All]!** – Skill/Ability being used.

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Quest 2.1**

 _The Next Day_

 _Kitchen, Hebert Residence_

Breakfast the next morning was, to put it mildly, an extremely awkward affair. Then again, just yesterday I had nearly been killed by a delusional nutjob with a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Rushmore, had been forced to kill said crazy A-class Parahuman in self-defense, and then had to recount everything to my dad who had just discovered I was a parahuman.

So…yeah awkward silence was _definitely_ on the menu along with the toast and bacon.

Dad had likely realized I was at least hesitant about joining the Wards from the fact I hadn't broached the subject last night, and was likely already planning ways to persuade me to do just that. I predicted that a good portion of his day at work would be spent on his computer researching just that.

I could see why he'd think that I needed the protection that the Wards offered, but really, I didn't. People like Hamelin, from what I'd gathered from the Wards and junior New Wave girls yesterday, were not common. The Protectorate were generally very firm about hunting them down and either putting them down for good or Birdcaging them. Aside from people like the Slaughterhouse Nine that is, those that were too dangerous to pursue without a small army of parahumans.

Thankfully, breakfast was over soon and Dad was heading off to work after calling me in sick to Winslow. That left me most of the day free to marshal my arguments against him, laying out cold logic in the face of what would no doubt be impassioned and emotional pleas. I liked to think that I knew my Dad fairly well, and while he kept an iron grip on his temper, he was a very emotionally driven man. He tended to lead with that in most things, and it was why looking at him after mom's death had been painful to me, because I could see how I felt in how he looked.

I kept busy after he left, tidying up the place. I'd really let things get run-down thanks to The Trio bearing down on me all the fucking time.

' _You are not alone now, my Mistress._ ' Iustitia said gently in my mind. ' _I am here with you, always._ '

' _Thanks, Iustitia._ ' I sent back to her. ' _I meant to ask, but the atmosphere at breakfast distracted me, do you want something to eat?_ Can _you eat?_ '

' _Of_ course _I can eat, Mistress._ ' My Embryo replied indignantly. ' _Maiden and Guardian Embryo are able to eat, although in the case of Guardians, what it can eat varies depending on what kind of animal they are. Maidens usually have a 'Maiden Eating Habit' that dictates how they eat or how much they eat. One Maiden might be an absolute glutton, while another may only eat white things, while a third may need to be hand-fed. It really depends on the Maiden._ '

' _Huh…that's interesting._ ' I mused. ' _So what's your 'Maiden Eating Habit'?_ '

' _Home cooked meals._ ' Iustitia replied instantly and enthusiastically. ' _Food prepared entirely in the kitchen, none of that prepackaged nonsense. It is justice!_ '

Snorting in amusement, I headed to the kitchen and started making something quick and easy for my Embryo. ' _Well considering that buying ingredients for food is cheaper than the prepackaged stuff, you certainly landed in the right house for it._ '

I made a bologna sandwich for her, which my lovely Embryo devoured eagerly and was pretty effusive with her praise for my cooking, making me blush up a storm.

"Anyway Mistress, I have some good news for you." Iustitia said as she daintily wiped her mouth with a napkin ad folded it up in front of her.

"Oh?" I asked with a hitched eyebrow.

"Apparently, there is a fledgling System forming on this world, which is linked to my growth." She said cheerfully. "More functions come online as I grow more powerful. As I have evolved to my Third Form, two new parts of the system have come online; Quests and Dungeons."

"Dungeons…as in places full of monsters?" I asked flatly.

"Indeed." The Embryo nodded. "Have no fear though Mistress; only someone with the **[Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper]** or a similar item or powers can access the dungeons, which obviously prevents any monsters within them from escaping."

OK, that was better than what I had imagined. I'd had visions of things like the rats from Hamelin's dimensional trap escaping from wherever they were kept and running amok in Brockton Bay.

"Wait, why would my cloak be able to access dungeons?" I asked after a moment. "Does it have to do with that third Active Ability?"

"Have a look at it." Iustitia said with the barest trace of smugness in her voice.

Shrugging my shoulders, I did. Pulling out my mirror, which I never went anywhere without now, I panned through the various items I had received from loot drops until I came to the last item on the list.

 **[Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper]**

 **Rarity: Epic**

 **A cloak formed by the Loot Drop System using remnants of the power of Hamelin, the Pied Piper released upon his death. A key aspect of his original powerset was the ability to create, sustain and travel to and from a dimensional pocket. This cloak allows the wearer to travel to any pocket dimension they are aware of, as well as return to where they entered the pocket. It also increases the wearer's stats by a modest margin and has three active abilities.**

 **Raises all stats by +15.**

 **Worn Ability: [Dimension Step]: Simply by focusing on the dimensional pocket you wish to enter, you can take a step forward and be there. To leave, simply picture your entry location and step.**

 **Active Ability #1: [Dimensional Shift]: Allows the user to 'shift' to any location within ten meters of themselves. Ten second cooldown after use.**

 **Active Ability #2: [Dimension Warping Barrier]: Creates a barrier to protect that exists in three separate dimensions at once and is able to withstand a tank's main cannon firing at it for five minutes straight. Five minute cooldown after use.**

 **Active Ability #3: [Dimensional Dungeon Key]: Only usable once per day. In combination with the [Dimensional Step] Worn Ability, this allows the wearer to both enter and leave [Dungeons]. It should be noted, however, that in order to make any use of this ability, the wearer must be able to find a dungeon in the first place.**

"Hey, the third skill's unlocked!" I blurted out. "How…?"

"I am your interface with the system, Mistress." My Embryo replied. "I will automatically 'read' any items that come into your possession, quantify what I read from them, and then display them for you in an easy to understand format. UBM Drops are all unique and powerful though, so sometimes to both 'read' through and quantify certain parts of their abilities and powers. Most of the abilities on this one were fairly simple to understand, but the last one took about eight hours to decipher, codify and format correctly."

"Huh…and the stat boosts?" I noted.

"I cut away any extraneous information considering we were in a collapsing dimensional bubble at the time." Iustitia deadpanned at me.

"Point." I conceded. "But it does say that I need to find the dungeons before I can enter them. How exactly are we going to do that?"

"Ah, but we know where one is already, Mistress." Iustitia said triumphantly. "The place where Hamelin snatched us and where we returned from the dimensional bubble is the entryway to a dungeon. With Hamelin's death, his power's artificial hold on the dimensional bubble will have collapsed and spread it around this city. We should find clues or drop items in the dungeon that will point us in the right direction for more."

"Not today." I sighed as I put my mirror away. "Dad's still not on the bandwagon about us being an Independent Hero yet. Pushing him by going out without talking about it would make him dig his heels in and make things way more emotional and…troublesome…than they need to be."

"A fair point Mistress, but he cannot force you to join the Wards." My Embryo pointed out.

"He can ground me for life though." I crossed my arms. "Or at least until I'm old enough to move out."

"This is very bothersome." Iustitia pouted, before brightening up slightly. "Perhaps you can redirect his anger? Tell him of your suffering at that sad excuse of an educational facility and have him take his anger out on them, Mistress. Get him to withdraw you and start studying for your GED as you sometimes fantasized about doing."

I swallowed heavily. "But…I'd have to tell him…about everything. About Emma…about…the Locker."

Iustitia stood up and drew me into a hug. It was amazing to me that once she had been the size of a ten year old; now she was as tall as I was. "I have all of your memories of the one called Emma Barnes, Mistress." She whispered as she held me. "You were truly the best of friends and the fact that you had something so precious so cruelly torn from you is a fact sadder than I could wish upon anyone. But the fact remains that the Emma you remember is gone, leaving this… _caricature_ , this… _foul puppet_ of a person in her place. I know not what caused her change, but it happened. Cast aside your reluctance, my Mistress. She has done you wrong and so, justice must be dealt to her for that. Nothing more and nothing less."

"And I have to tell Dad about everything in order to do that." I whispered. I had hit the highlights of the bullying campaign the previous night, but not who had been the masterminds. I'd have to stop him from going over to the Barnes' and doing something stupid.

"Anything worth doing is never easy, Mistress." My Embryo said solemnly.

That managed to get a weak laugh out of me. "True enough. Now, let's go over what we'll say to Dad…"

 _Same Time_

 _Pelham Residence_

"And you say that Amy was _that_ badly hurt?" Sarah Pelham, Lady Photon, asked in concern. She and the entirety of New Wave were sitting in her living room, listening to Amy and Vicky's version of events inside Hamelin's pocket dimension.

Vicky nodded seriously, even as she hugged a blushing Amy close protectively. "No joke, Aunt Sarah. If Justitia hadn't healed her, Ames would've bled out. Scariest thing I've ever seen. Stupid damn rats…"

"They were all the size of large dogs." Amy elaborated. "And there were so many of them that it was everything Vicky had to keep most of them off me before a couple came around from the opposite direction. My power didn't work on them, for obvious reasons now that I know they were projections, but when I tried and failed, the surprise left me open and…"

"I think we seriously owe this Justitia girl a lot of thanks." Crystal said, eyeing her cousins worriedly. "If it wasn't for her, we'd have lost Vicky and Amy."

"Agreed." Neil said with a nod. "What worries me is what the PRT might do. She did kill Hamelin. They might use that to pressure her into joining them."

"That was justified self-defense if ever I have seen it." Carol said briskly. "She was in clear and present danger, the man didn't respect or follow any of the Unwritten Rules and he had threatened to track down and murder her loved ones. In _any_ court case they offered, I could tear any case they presented to shreds and even have them sued for libel."

"I doubt the PRT are going to browbeat her." Sarah said calmingly. "Hamelin _did_ kidnap almost all of the ENE Wards as well as our girls, meaning that it's quite likely that Director Piggot signed a Kill Order for him and backdated it to the time that the Wards were kidnapped."

"Why backdate it that far?" Eric asked in confusion.

"To legally protect Justitia from any accusation of acting before the Kill Order was issued." Carol explained. "Some unscrupulous PRT Directors might have used the time of the Kill Order as a stick to browbeat Justitia into joining the Wards, only backdating it after she'd joined the Wards. Director Piggot, despite her dislike of Capes, is scrupulously fair and is highly unlikely to do that considering she saved the Wards."

"But doesn't a Kill Order make it legal for a Cape to be killed, point blank?" Vicky frowned, clearly not enamored with this kind of legal chicanery.

"Yes and no. Yes, a Kill Order legally allows a Parahuman to be killed on sight. No, it doesn't automatically backtrack to their entire life." Carol corrected her blood-daughter. "For a start, the presumption of law is that everyone is innocent unless proven guilty. Generally, Kill Orders are backdated to the incident that caused the Order to be issued in the first place, to absolve any Heroes or even Villains of any combative actions they've taken against the target of the Kill Order that would normally be a cause for censure or arrest during the period between the Order being signed and the incident that sparked it."

"Makes sense." Vicky said with a look of discontent. "Still think it's not fair for people to try that strong-arming crap on people."

"Language." Sarah scolded. "But I agree with you, it's a completely unfair and unethical method to get someone to join any kind of organization. Just be thankful that Director Piggot only uses such tactics on the likes of Shadow Stalker."

The frown on her face spoke volumes of how the leader of New Wave felt about the former vigilante. Stalker was guilty of at least one count of either accidental manslaughter or murder (Carol herself had claimed it would be a coin toss on which would have stuck) and several cases of use of excessive force and aggravated assault. If the girl hadn't taken the PRT offer when she was captured it was highly unlikely that she would have been out juvie before she was of legal age. The only reason the Protectorate had even extended the offer was because they needed every cape they could get their hands on.

While Sarah understood the need for those kind of tactics, particularly with the gangs so out-of-control in the Bay, that didn't mean she had to _like_ them. She and Carol had personally made sure that the younger members of New Waves had as little contact with the volatile ex-vigilante as possible.

"Victoria, you're on patrol more than the rest of us." She continued in what people insisted on calling her 'Photon Mom' voice. "If you see Justitia, kindly let her know that she has the gratitude of New Wave for saving Amy's life and for helping you both get free of that madman. Let her know she can come to us for advice on being a hero or just for someone to chat to about the life of a Cape. Lord knows I would have wanted someone to talk to back when we were starting out."

"Got it." Vicky nodded.

After that, the meeting went on for a while before breaking up. Sarah managed to drag her sister into her bedroom for a private conversation before she left though.

"Carol, there have been several pointed questions regarding the way you treat Amy." Sarah said sternly.

"It's none of their-!" Carol began indignantly.

"It may not be any of _their_ business how you treat Amy in your home, but it is _mine_ as her Aunt, and it is most certainly everyone's business how you treat Panacea in public when she has reduced casualties at every Endbringer Battle since she Triggered by at least forty percent each time." Lady Photon spoke firmly, making her sister stiffen at the censure in her voice. "I and the rest of New Wave are partly to blame for not paying closer attention before now, but the way you outright _ignored_ Amy entirely after such a stressful and frightening situation has pushed it too far, Carol."

"What do you mean?" the lawyer asked warily.

"Before we left after the M/S Protocols were lifted, Director Piggot let me know that there's a spare room in the Wards base if Panacea needs it." Sarah said with enforced calm. "That means she is anticipating Amy becoming so distraught or stressed that she runs away from you, Carol, and that she plans on capitalizing on it."

"I…" words failed Carol Dallon for once.

"I know that Marquis affected you badly, and god knows we both have our inner demons dear sister, but I am _very_ disappointed that you allowed who her father is to impact the way you raised and treated her." Sarah said impassively.

"He is a danger!" Carol hissed quietly. "She has his blood!"

"Carol…who a person is related to isn't a factor; how they choose to live their life is." Her sister said sadly. "Amy has committed _no_ crimes, has done _nothing_ to warrant your treatment of her and I can tell that she is highly stressed. If she doesn't get relief from that stress soon, there's no telling what could happen. I want you to either get your head on straight and then look at her impartially like the trained lawyer that you are, or to admit to me, here and now, that you are utterly incapable of doing that because your inner demons have control of your words and actions when it comes to her."

The lawyer gaped at her sister in shock. This was not something she had ever considered as a possibility. _Her own sister_ was telling her to disregard her well-founded(?) suspicions about Amy because of _fairness_?!

"Well, Carol?" Sarah asked.

"Sarah…why…?" Carol asked faintly.

"Because she is a good girl and a good person." The leader of New Wave said steadily. "The rule of law is 'innocent until proven guilty' and that a crime has to be committed before charges are brought down on someone, remember? Amy isn't Marquis, and never will be so long as we don't make her snap."

"The fact we have to worry about her snapping in the first place is reason enough to be wary of her." Carol muttered mulishly. "Fine. I'll…try, Sarah."

"If you don't try, _really_ try, Carol, I'll have her off you before you can say 'Brandish'." Sarah warned her sister softly. "It's better than the alternative of Amy going and joining the Wards, because you know that Vicky would follow her to look after her."

Carol bit back a growl of irritation at how her blood-daughter doted on the adopted one. "Fine."

As she watched her sister leave the room with a stormy expression on her face, Sarah sighed. She loved Carol, she really did, but she allowed her hatred of the man who had almost to executed the two of them take the reins at the slightest provocation, and Marquis had hammered Carol's berserk button like no one had since she had killed that would-be executioner. Quite why she was so wary of Amy, who was an innocent girl, was beyond her, but Carol had always been insecure and slightly obsessive about that sort of thing ever since she had Triggered.

"Dammit Carol." She muttered. The fact that Piggot, Miss Militia and even _Armsmaster_ had seen the way Carol had treated Amy before she had was not only embarrassing and mortifying, it was _appalling_. Just how willfully blind had she and the other members of New Wave been? Mark might have an excuse due to his depression, but as for the rest of them? It was disgraceful and she was ashamed that she hadn't seen Amy hurting like she obviously was.

Well, now she was aware of the problem, she could take steps to correct it. Sarah had the suspicion that Carol might just give up and have Amy placed in Sarah's custody, but that was OK too. As long as Carol got over her own ego and demons or Amy was removed from a potentially poisonous environment, then the situation would be resolved.

She just hoped that it was resolved soon.

 _Later_

 _Danny Hebert_

 _Living Room, Hebert Residence_

Daniel 'Danny' Hebert listened with clenched teeth as his daughter, with a stone-like expression on her face and a flat tone of voice, described the kind of bullying that she had gone through, at the hands of someone they had both considered _family_ no less!

"Why, Taylor? Why didn't you tell me?" he asked her once she fell silent.

"Dad, what could you even _do_?" she replied wearily. "Emma's been threatening that if I do anything to try and connect her with bullying or the like, she'll have her Dad slap me with a libel action faster than you can say 'knife' and you _know_ how Mr. Barnes is about protecting his daughters."

Stifling a curse, Danny had to admit that she had a point there. Alan could easily fall into the 'sleazy attorney' act like a second skin, but he was a family man first and foremost, willing to protect his daughters from anything and everyone.

"But I don't understand…why would she _do_ this?" he said in distress. Emma had been like a daughter to him, just as Taylor had been like a daughter to Alan. That she could change so much in such a short period of time as during the Summer Holidays after Annette's death was…

"I remember she abruptly hung up one time when I was on the phone to her at Camp." Taylor said with a frown. "She was perfectly fine with me at that point, so…something might have happened then. What, I don't know. And it doesn't matter."

"Taylor?" Danny flinched slightly as the blaze of anger in his daughter's eyes grew.

"As far as I am concerned, she is not the Emma Barnes that I grew up with and loved like a sister." Taylor said angrily, although there was a hint of sadness in there as well. "She is _dead_ to me. She made me _Trigger_!"

"The Locker?" Danny asked with dread.

Nodding tightly, Taylor continued, "I could have forgiven her, even after everything she put me through before that, but the Locker almost killed me. No, I _can't_ forgive her, not for that."

"I…can't really blame you." Danny admitted, rubbing at his face tiredly. "I can and do blame Winslow though. What the ever-loving hell do they think they're playing at over there?!"

"I dunno." Taylor replied in consternation. "Alan's a lawyer, but…he wouldn't be able to make the staff turn their noses up at me like they did, and I think that Madison Clements' father's a watch supervisor at a factory or something. That only leaves Sophia Hess, but…she's dirt poor, from what I've gathered. No clue what kind of influence her or her family could have over the faculty."

Danny didn't know either, but there was one thing he was certain about…

"There is no way I am letting you go back there." Danny said firmly. "You are not a human punching bag for those…hellions, dammit!"

Between the two of them, Danny and Taylor thrashed out a plan for her GED once she was withdrawn from Winslow. Danny knew that Taylor had inherited her mother's intelligence and work ethic, so she would almost certainly keep to her coursework very well. On the other hand, she had also inherited his wife's stubborn streak, along with his own, which would make the next part of this conversation hard.

"OK then…I think we should get to the next part of this conversation, Taylor." He said carefully.

As her face turned resigned, he noticed that her left hand, the one with what had been a circular scar on it, twitched slightly. Now that his attention was drawn to it, he could see that it was a tattoo with a sword on it.

"Before that, I think there's someone else that you should meet." Taylor said calmly. She got up and closed the curtains of the living room, both the front and back windows, before sitting down again. "Come out, Iustitia."

"Wha-?" Danny started to say, and then a bright white light appeared next to the chair Taylor sat in. When the light dimmed, a young woman dressed in a costume that made her look like Lady Justice, blindfold and all.

"Greetings, Daniel Hebert." The woman said, dipping a slight curtsy. "My name is Iustitia, Maiden of Justice, and I am your daughter's power made manifest."

"…uhhhhh…Taylor…?" Danny managed to get out. "What…?"

"My power is a lot different than most other powers that Capes have, Dad." Taylor said and eyed her companion. "Iustitia, please take a seat and we can start explaining."

"Yes, Mistress." The girl gracefully squeezes into the seat next to Taylor, who raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. "I am your weapon, mistress. It is only right that I am by your side."

"Errr…Taylor? 'Mistress'? Really?" Danny asked, wondering if he had just found out TMI about his daughter's preferences.

"I've _tried_ to get her to stop calling me that, but she won't." his daughter huffed. "Anyway, you want an explanation, right?"

And what an explanation it was. Taylor's power made her into a goddamned _RPG_ character, complete with a stat sheet. Not to mention the fact that 'Iustitia' could morph into three different types of weaponry that alternated between confusing him (the scales and the badge), impressing him (the sword and the tipstaff) and giving him a scare (the gun).

"And you say that you know how to use these weapons?" Danny asked carefully.

"Yes dad." Taylor replied patiently. "The higher my level with a class related to that weapon, the more skilled with it I become. I'm a Level 6 Swordswoman, a Level 2 Maceman and a Level 2 Gunslinger; even _one_ level is enough to ensure that I know how to carry and use a weapon with basic skill, and I only get better as I level up."

"And she always has me at her side, Mr. Hebert." Iustitia added. "As her Embryo, I am with her always."

"How?" he eyed the girl as he asked. A girl who was, from everything he had been understand, the embodiment of Taylor's views on justice.

"The marking on my Mistress' left hand is a seal wherein I dwell when I am not in need." The 'Embryo' explained. "I am not in need of sleep and am awake at all times. In my weapon forms, I can 'see' all around me, 360 degrees, meaning that it is _very_ difficult to sneak up on my Mistress and me without some sort of invisibility power, which I understand is very rare in this world."

Danny didn't exactly keep up with the Cape scene, but he did think he'd heard somewhere that powers like that were a bit rarer than the rest.

"OK, so…you have some, frankly speaking, amazing and versatile powers." He said firmly. "Between the two of you, you switch between a Support, a Healer and a Damage Dealer at the drop of a hat."

Seeing the look of surprise on Taylor's face, he had to laugh. "Your old man used to play Dungeons and Dragons way back when, which included the kinds of classes you've spoken about, except no guns. Maceman's kinda iffy, but it looks to be a DPS/Tank hybrid class with that buckler-enhancing ability it has. Swordsman's a straight DPS."

"That is an accurate assessment." Iustitia nodded.

"How many Job Classes can Taylor even have?" Danny asked curiously.

"Six Low-Rank Jobs, Three Mid-Rank Jobs and two Superior Jobs." Iustitia rattled off immediately. "Currently, my Mistress has three of the Low-Rank Job Class slots filled: **[Swordsman]** , **[Maceman]** and **[Gunslinger]**. We intended to wait until we maxed out the **[Swordsman]** Job Class before choosing new job classes, but events overtook us."

"A sensible approach, but it looks like the usual downside of multi-classing doesn't apply to Taylor." Danny mused.

"Downside?" Taylor blinked.

"Multi-class characters, at least the ones I'm familiar with, tend to level up slower than a single-class character because of EXP penalties or a greater amount of experience needed to level the character up." Danny replied thoughtfully. "By contrast, you seem to simply level up and then have the ability to arbitrarily assign that level to any of your Job Classes as you please. That blows the D&D system out of the water. I'd have _loved_ to have played a system like it back when I was into board games."

Danny had always been a fan of three major 'builds' or character archetypes, when he was designing his character: the frivolous bard, the serious spearman and the solemn cleric. The chance to have one character that had the ability to be all three without the large multi-class EXP penalties, even without the 'Embryo' that Taylor had on top of that…well, even in his old age, his inner-gamer was practically _salivating_ at the thought of it.

He caught himself as he saw Taylor and Iustitia smirking at him. "Ahem. So we've established that your power is both unique and powerful. Why is it you are…reluctant to join the Wards?"

"It has nothing to do with the people, for the most part." Taylor answered immediately. "They're nice people…well, Aegis is an anal-retentive by-the-books idiot, and I've never met Shadow Stalker, but the others are nice."

"What's the problem then?" Danny pushed.

"Frankly? They'd slow me down." She said bluntly. "Their PR department has a ridiculous amount of say over their equipment and rule of engagement. They've been trained to incapacitate and subdue, which is good, but…if any of them had been fighting Hamelin instead of me, I think they'd probably have lost."

"I won't argue with that, but they're also less likely to be fighting someone alone. You can always use some backup." Danny pointed out.

"I have Iustitia for that." Taylor reminded him. "We were talking today, and apparently Iustitia can learn skills and stuff while she's in her Maiden Form. If need be, I can use other weapons and she can fight by my side."

"I would like to add that such a happenstance would be _very much_ a last resort." Iustitia huffed. " _I_ am my Mistress' weapon, not some dead piece of metal or wood. It _utterly_ offends my pride that I may have to allow my Mistress to bear a lesser weapon. Really, I am a far more useful weapon than any other one that may be found…"

She trailed off, looking away from both her 'Mistress' and Danny, clearly sulking at the mere _suggestion_ that her Mistress would use anything but her in combat. It was really rather adorable to watch, really.

Leaning back with a sigh, he looked at his daughter evenly. She had countered all of his arguments quite evenly. She didn't need training, because her power automatically gave her that as she became stronger. She didn't need teammates or partners that much, because her power was a partner who was solely devoted to protecting and serving Taylor to the extension of all else. She didn't need equipment, as her power provided it for her.

A thought occurred to him. "Iustitia, you can draw 'loot' from enemies, correct? Does that include cash?"

"Yes." The Embryo replied, which had Taylor scrabbling for her mirror. When her eyes bugged out in shock, Danny raised an eyebrow.

"How much?" he asked.

"I have over _two thousand dollars_ here." Taylor replied shakily. Danny's own eyes bulged out at that.

"How?!"

"My mistress received, on average, between ten and thirty dollars from each **[Giant Rat of Hamelin]** that she slew." Iustitia recited. "There were at least a hundred of them that either my Mistress slew or that her allies slew, and she gained the money from that as well. Then there's the **[Hamelanian Warriors]** , they gave $100-200 every time, with the **[Hamelanian Warrior Chief]** giving a flat $300. Then there was the **[Giant Rat King of Hamelin]** and Hamelin himself. I…can't quite recall what the exact sum was that they gave you, but two thousand seems to be on the low side."

"It's closer to _three_." Taylor admitted in a strangled voice.

"I think that money isn't a concern anymore." Danny said lightly, keeping himself under control. Even half of that amount would really alleviate the pressure of the mortgage payments for a goodly while.

"Why are you so relieved? That is a _piddling_ amount of money." Iustitia said with a questioning tilt of her head. "I am more than slightly disappointed that you don't have at least a hundred thousand dollars there. Killing UBM's usually nets you that much, if not more. Perhaps when we revisit that dimensional pocket we can acquire a more suitable amount of funds."

"Wait, what?" Danny asked with narrowed eyes.

"Apparently Iustitia getting stronger means we can enter dungeons now." Taylor sighed. "Hamelin's large dimensional pocket is the only one we know the entry location of, and it's likely that it's shrunk since Hamelin's death. Whatever's inside it cannot be as bad as what we faced the first time."

His first instinct was to tell her that there was no way that he was going to allow her to go back in that place, but he mentally smacked himself for such a kneejerk reaction. Going into 'Overprotective Dad Mode' after basically being a no-load parent for nearly two years would make Taylor withdraw in resentment and/or confusion.

"I am…not exactly _enthralled_ at the idea of you going back there." He said instead.

"Ditto." Taylor snorted. "But monsters inside the dungeons give me EXP, loot and money. Boss Monsters and Unique Boss Monsters give me more of all three and stronger items to boot. The more of all of that I get, the stronger I become and the less likely that a gangbanger or skinhead will get one over on me. At least with the Dungeons I have a way to get out quickly if I ever get in over my head. That would be true even if I decided to join the Wards."

"Additionally, the Protectorate and PRT may not allow my Mistress to enter any dungeons as a Ward." Iustitia added with a scowl at the thought of someone telling her Mistress what to do. "That would mean at least _two years_ of being stuck as a Low-Rank Embryo, plus who knows how long after that to evolve again, which does not appeal to me whatsoever."

While his paternal instincts approved of the idea, Danny was also displeased at the idea of someone artificially controlling his daughter's strength and powers. And unfortunately, it was an all-too likely situation if she joined the Wards; the stated mission of the Wards was to teach and protect them, not throw them into danger.

' _Am I_ seriously _considering letting Taylor go dungeon diving?_ ' the man wondered in mild disbelief. Had Taylor not had a partner like Iustitia, he wouldn't have even considered it, but as it was, Iustitia was completely devoted to his daughter's well-being. Considering Taylor was, for all practical considerations, her _mother_ from the way she had described the way an Embryo basically gestated for a month before being born, it wasn't much of a surprise.

He manfully ignored the fact that his daughter was now, apparently, an unwed, virgin teenage mother. He really didn't know how to feel about that.

"OK…" he sighed reluctantly. "OK Taylor. I won't try to force you to join the Wards, and you can go dungeon diving…but I have a few conditions."

"Oh?" Taylor eyed him warily.

"For one, we plan your build out." He said seriously. "How you build a character, from the equipment you issue them to the way you distribute their stats, can have an immense impact on how well they perform. Not to brag, but I'm just a bit more experienced in how to build characters than you."

"Sounds fair." His daughter nodded carefully.

"Another thing is going through the equipment you have to see what is most useful and what is just vendor trash." Danny went on. "I don't know if you have a weight limit to what you can carry or not, but even if you don't have an upper limit, having a cluttered inventory can make getting at what you need irksome at best and panic-inducing in a pinch."

"He speaks the truth, Mistress." Iustitia put in her two cents.

Taylor merely nodded her head again, That did sound like a good idea.

"Finally, I want you to promise me that, whether you're crime-fighting or dungeon diving, you'll both promise to _take care of yourselves_." He said seriously. "If I could help, I would, but I don't have any powers beyond a mean right hook and a bit of brawling knowledge from my younger days. So you take care of yourself, you hear me? No foolish risks and you act cautiously as much as you can."

Taylor got up and hugged him tightly. "Promise." She whispered.

Later that night, as Danny went to bed and dozed off, he failed to notice the outline of a circle appeared on his left hand before vanishing.


	11. Quest 2-2

**SeerKing looked up from his desk, where he was writing a list of some sort.**

" **Oh, hey you lot." he said with a quick wave. "Just doing my preparations for Christmas. I hope you all are as well; there's only four weeks to go before the big day!"**

 **Leaning back, he smirked. "This will be the last update from my schedule for 2019. I am not happy about the length of time that I've taken off this year, but it wasn't my fault. Stupid motherboard. Anyway, the next scheduled update will be on the 15** **th** **of January 2020. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, one and all."**

"Iustitia!" - Regular Speech

' _Mistress!_ ' - Thoughts/Telepathy

 **[Justice For All!]** \- Skill/Ability Being Used

 **Beta'd by BigCC**

 **Quest 2.2**

 _The Next Day_

 _Kitchen, Hebert Residence_

"There's something I still don't understand about you, Iustitia." Dad said as he sat down to breakfast.

"Hm?" my Embryo hummed to show she was listening as she devoured her breakfast of bacon, eggs and a few other fried delights. She wasn't kidding about how much she loved home cooked meals...

"Why are you humanoid? What makes a Maiden Embryo different from the other categories of Embryo?" he pressed.

I admit, I was a bit curious about that myself.

"Love." Iustitia replied simply. "Maiden Embryos are born from those who love something or someone dearly. We are rare because few people love with the intensity and purity that is required to form us. My Mistress loves you, this city and her memories of her mother dearly and purely. That is what caused my birth as a Maiden With Arms."

I blushed at the warmth in Iustitia's voice. The pride she felt in that simple statement was supremely obvious.

"Are there any other types of humanoid Embryos?" I asked once I had my blush under control, desperate to change the subject.

"Some Guardian Embryos are humanoid." the Maiden of Justice said before grimacing. "There are also...Apostles."

"Apostles?" Dad and I asked in unison. There was a note of something distinctly sinister when my Maiden had uttered that word.

"Apostles are similar to Maidens in that we are humanoid and can possess forms from the other categories of Embryos, but the source of our birth is...different." Iustitia said haltingly. "Maidens are born from love and are always female. Apostles...Apostles are always male and are born...from hate."

"Hate?" I muttered uneasily. "I was feeling quite a bit of that when I was in the locker."

"You loved more than you hated, Mistress." Iustitia reassured me with a smile. "Your love eclipsed your hate, thus I was born."

"Should I start referring to you as my granddaughter, Iustitia?" Dad teased as my blush redoubled.

"Daaaad!" I groaned. "She doesn't share my DNA...actually, do you even _have_ DNA, Iustitia?"

"I can if I want to, but I don't see the point." my Embryo shrugged. "I am your Embryo, Mistress, and that is all that matters to me, far more than a mere blood connection."

I reached out and patted my Embryo on the head gently. "Awww."

My adorable Embryo just pouted cutely.

 _Later_

 _Street, Docks Area of Brockton Bay_

As it turns out, Dad was a lot more up-to-date on games than I had thought; apparently, the DWA had their own server for games like _World of Warcraft_ and other MMORPG's and Dad was the official Guildmaster of the DWA and their online guild.

The things you learn about your own father...

 _Anyway_ , he had agreed with Iustitia's idea about maxing out my **[Swordsman]** job to its maximum level, but he also suggested getting **[Maceman]** and **[Gunslinger]** to at least Level 10 before doing that. As it was, I'd focus on getting **[Swordsman]** leveled up to ten first before going back and repeating the process with the other two, as my first job still had the highest level of the three.

Something that I had only just noticed when Dad pointed it out was that my Job Class Skills had leveled up and gotten more powerful as I'd leveled their respective jobs up, which flew in the face of most RPG's that I was aware of. I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though, so I rolled with it.

' _Why would you level up the skill you got from a job separately from the job itself, Mistress? It sounds far more tiresome that way._ ' Iustitia asked in amusement. She was currently inside the crest on my hand, as I was walking along in plainclothes.

' _Humans tend to enjoy having as much control over a situation as they can, Iustitia. That tends to make them micromanage a lot of things that could be handled a lot more simply._ ' I answered her in amusement. ' _I am actually glad I don't have to mess around with Skill Points and the like. I can just focus on fighting and gaining strength, especially since you said you'd handle learning a lot of the supplementary skills like_ **[Sewing]** _and stuff._ '

' _I am glad to be of use to you even outside of combat, my Mistress._ ' the Maiden of Justice replied warmly.

Blushing slightly at the earnestness of Iustitia, I paused as I rounded a street corner and turned into a familiar street. It was _from_ here that Hamelin had kidnapped me, and it was _to_ here that I had returned after fleeing the collapse of Hamelin's pocket dimension. I suppose it was fitting that I returned here to make another sally into what remained of the pocket dimension.

Discretely checking around me for cameras and passersby, I snuck into an alley and equipped my armor, which was all rat-based. That was not something that I was pleased with and was I honestly hoping that I'd be able to upgrade or redesign it before I made my official debut to the public at large.

I could already hear people calling me a Mouse Protector fan-girl if I showed up in public wearing this stuff.

' _So how do I use this thing? Just say the name of the skill?_ ' I asked Iustitia as I fingered my technicolor cape.

' _First, you must be in the correct location, within at least a meter of where we originally entered Hamelin's dimension._ ' Iustitia said, mentally nudging me to walk forward. ' _Then, yes, you have to invoke the name of the skill aloud. Once that happens, we will be whisked away into the pocket dimension._ '

Nodding, I headed for roughly where I had stood when Hamelin had kidnapped me. Stopping, I adjusted my cloak, straightened up, and summoned Iustitia in her First Form as well. If I was doing this, I was going in ready for whatever was waiting on the other side

" **[Dimension Step]!** " I whispered before taking a step forwards.

In that instant I was surrounded by red and black light so bright that I lifted my arms to instinctively shield my face. Then the light died and I peered out to see a window pop up in front of me.

 **[Welcome!]**

 **[The pocket dimension previously known as [Grand Lair of Hamelin] collapsed upon the death of its creator, Hamelin the Pied Piper. You have entered a remnant of it via the power derived of Hamelin's own. You can conquer this section by defeating the boss that has generated in it, which will lead you to locations to enter other remnant pocket dimensions. Once you conquer all of them? Who knows what may happen...]**

 **[Current Level: 10]**

 **[Target Remnant Pocket Level: 10]**

 **[Entering Remnant #1: Rats on a Sinking Ship...]**

Oh lovely, MORE of those evil rats!

An instant later and I was in a wooden room that was reeking of rot, seaweed and disrepair. The disgusting smell, mixed with my sudden translocation, was almost enough to make me hurl. Mightily forcing the urge downward, and breathing through my mouth, I looked around.

"What the hell?" I asked aloud. "It wasn't like this when I was here last time!"

"I believe that Hamelin's deteriorating mental state might have had some effect on his pocket dimension when it fractured." my Embryo theorized. "It's possible that each pocket perhaps represents an emotion or part of his mental state prior to passing away."

"He didn't just _die_ , Iustitia. I _killed_ him." I said, with a shiver. "Let's not try to delude ourselves about what happened to him. I did it and I have to own that. As a human being he deserves that much, if nothing else."

"As you say, Mistress." Iustitia deferred to me, but I had this funny feeling that she didn't want to, as she didn't like people trying to kill or capture me. Honestly, having someone aside from Dad who was a hundred percent in my corner was...reassuring beyond words, really.

"Well, regardless of what the heck's up with this place, we'd better get a move on." I sighed and started to take a closer look at my surroundings. The room was about the same size as an average-sized lounge, and there were no decorations or anything on the walls. There was also only a single door allowing entry/exit to the room, so I guess I know which way I'm going.

Thankfully the door wasn't locked and despite the rust coating the hinges it opened easily. I nudged it open with a careful toe, and peered out to see a wide, dimly lit corridor leading onward. The ambiance here made me think of zombies for some reason; I _really_ hoped that I didn't encounter zombies here. I think I'd hurl if I had to deal with the smell of rotten flesh in addition to the foul funk of this rotting ship.

Treading carefully down the corridor, I strain my ears for any sign of more monsters. The title of this place suggested that the monsters here would be more rats, and they were likely stronger than the ones I'd faced before. I didn't want to give the damned things a chance to sink their teeth into me, thank you very much. Rats had almost killed Panacea, and it had looked quite painful. Nope, not something I wanted to go through myself, even if my armor protected me.

Speaking of my armor, my current equipment read out as:

 **Face: Rat Fur Half-Face Mask**

 **Head: Half-Closed Helm of the Rat King**

 **Body: Rat Skin Leather Armor**

 **Legs: Rat Skin Breeches**

 **Belt: Rat Skin Belt**

 **Arms: [Empty]**

 **Feet: Rat Skin Boots**

 **Neck: [Empty]**

 **Cloak: Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper**

My only open slots were my arms and neck, the latter of which concerned me. Having one of the most vital portions of your anatomy unprotected when facing creatures that instinctively went for the throat was not a good thing. Plus all of this armor was pretty low-level stuff. I'd have to look into upgrading it.

The sound of running claws on wood made me tense up and I took a stance. Seconds later, my first enemy came into view, bursting through an open doorway. It was a rat, but different than what I had expected. Whereas the rats from Hamelin's completed dimension pocket had all looked healthy and well fed (for, you know, giant rats), this one looked as if it had gone for a week or so without food, and had then been thrown in the ocean for good measure. It was skinny enough that I'd probably see its bones if it wasn't for the thick coat of dripping wet, matted gray fur coating its body. Mad, bloodshot yellow eyes glared at me as it charged towards me, a long whip-like tail lashing furiously behind it.

Deciding to meet the charge head on, I lifted Iustitia's sword form and activate a combat skill. " **[Blade Charge]!** "

Shouting the skill name like a battle cry, I surged forward, sword aiming straight for the rat's body…before it suddenly opened its mouth and shot a fucking _cannonball of water_ right at me. Whether by design or coincidence the water ball met my sword mid-charge. My Embryo's weapon form easily sliced through it, but the impact still threw my aim off and led to my attack piercing the rat's right fore-shoulder rather than the neck where I was aiming.

The impact was still enough to send the rat skidding back across the wooden floor, screeching in pain.

I immediately moved to follow, stepping forward and twisting my weapon to a horizontal position before activating **[Blade Sweep]** to rip through the monster's exposed torso before it could recover completely, eviscerating it in a surge of blood and gore.

 **You have defeated Giant Drowned Rat (LV10)! You receive 150 EXP!**

 **You have looted Mangy Soaked Rat Pelt X1!**

 **You have looted $20.00!**

Yeah, like I'd use that pelt for anything. The EXP and money is nice though.

"Iustitia, was I seeing things, or did that rat just spit a water blast the size of a basketball at me?" I asked with a blink of disbelief as the rat corpse dissolved.

"No, Mistress, you saw truly." my Embryo reassured me. "At a guess, the fracturing of Hamelin's pocket dimension has affected more than simply the dungeon's aesthetics; the enemies you face will likely have been affected and enhanced by it as well. Each Remnant and the creatures that inhabit it will likely have been similarly distorted by some emotion Hamelin felt as he died."

"Ah...that means this 'Remnant' must be...despair." I concluded, looking around. An abandoned ship, left to rot and fall to pieces... you didn't need a Masters in Psychology to know that was pretty representative of stagnation and despair.

"Quite likely." Iustitia agreed. "Step carefully, my mistress. Whatever other effect it has caused, the fracturing has bled more power into the monsters that inhabit this dungeon."

I can guess why; Hamelin's conscious mind must have given cohesion and control to the original dimension pocket once he formed it, even when he was asleep. With him dead, the unrestricted emotions he had felt as I killed him had spread out, fractured and echoed and then resonated with specific fragments of the pocket dimension as it collapsed. Now the monsters in the remnants were stronger, yes, more tricky, yes, but also less directed and far less organized without Hamelin's will to guide and direct them.

Now aware of the types of enemies I would be facing, I advanced again, but somewhat more cautiously than before. I wished I had some way of seeing the stats of the rats so I would know if using Iustitia's **[Balance the Scales]** ability would power them up or power them down.

As I went, I cut my way through two more **[Giant Drowned Rats]** and leveled up, which was really quite nice. I assigned the level to **[Swordsman]** and received a new attack skill, **[Double Strike]** , which was a quick combo of a stab followed by a wide slash, both powered up of course.

I paused at the first intersection that I found and looked around. Including the way I had come from, there were four paths I could take. Ahead of me was a set of stairs that led up to the next level. To the left was a doorway with a sign emblazoned with 'Armory' above it, while to the right was a doorway (sans the door itself) that had 'Crew Quarters' on a sign above it.

After less than a second of consideration, I discarded the idea of going up for the moment. Mostly because the first rule of any RPG was 'explore everywhere thoroughly' so I considered which way to go out of left and right. Deliberating with Iustitia, we eventually decided to go to the armory, as it was possible that some half decent weapons and armor would be in there. Also, it might make any fights against any possible humanoid enemies easier if I preemptively disarmed them before they could grab their weapons.

"...wow..." I gaped as I closed the Armory door behind me. The room had likely once been full of racks of highly polished wood, mounted with guns, swords, pikes and other stuff. Now, over half of the racks were empty and collapsing under the burden of their own weight, while the remaining ones were only half full. I'd take all of them, of course, but they were still in pretty bad condition.

 **You have acquired [Boarding Pike] X10!**

 **You have acquired [Poor Quality Steel Cutlass] X20!**

 **You have acquired [Flintlock Pistol] X10!**

 **You have acquired [Flintlock Musket] X10!**

 **You have acquired [Belaying Pin] X30!**

Well if nothing else, I can sell the clubs to the Dockworkers for self-defense against the gangs.

There was no armor in the Armory sadly, but there _was_ a set of **[Fingerless Pirate Gloves]** that were in a drawer that gave my arms some degree of protection, as well as adding to the damage I dealt with swords by one. Pretty nice.

Leaving the Armory, I next went into the Crew Quarters, which was a wide open space full of old, rotting hammocks...as well as a bunch of **[Giant Drowned Rats]** , at least twenty of them.

There was a moment of silence as the waterlogged rats glared at me in feral hatred before I smirked.

"Iustitia...I believe that it is time to give your new form a test run!" I said, pointing her sword form at the rats. "Form Three, now!"

"Aye-aye, Mistress!" my Embryo shouted. " **[The Lone Gun and Star of Frontier Justice]!** "

In a flash of light, the sword morphed into the silvery revolver, while the scales I held in my other hand disappeared and the slight weight of the silver star on my breast registered. I could feel the power of **[One Riot, One Ranger]** flowing through me as I lined up my first shot against the rats, which were starting to charge, very slowly...which I realized was the effect of my **[Quickdraw]** skill. It gave me bullet time for the first shot I fired every combat.

Making good use of it, I leveled my pistol and took aim at the leading rat.

BANG!

The gun roared as I sent my first bullet shrieking down the room and into the eye of one charging rat, killing it instantly. I quickly adjusted my aim and used **[The Bullet Strikes True]** to ricochet my next bullet off the wall and into the back of the head of the next one, which collapsed and tripped over the six or so following it, giving me a palpable gap between the group.

I quickly fired my last four bullets, taking down four of the six rats of the first group. Now I had ten seconds before my weapon could be fired again and I still had two rats charging at me while the others were blocked by the corpses of their fellows. Fortunately, Iustitia and I had talked about this eventuality yesterday and we had come up with a useful little idea based on what she knew of the **[Gunslinger]** class and its eventual skills.

I flipped my gun into the air and grabbed the barrel before swinging it like a club, smacking the lead rat across the head with it, sending the beast flying a couple of feet to the deck. I lashed out again, pistol-whipping the other one in the jaw and sending it reeling.

"Reload complete!" Iustitia shouted. I swiftly flipped my gun around and finished off the two nearby with two neat headshots.

Turning my attention to the remaining six, who'd just managed to clear their way through, I took aim and fired four time in quick succession. Luckily, with the rats so packed together and charging straight ahead, they were easy targets and all four headshots took down another rodent.

Flipping my gun once again, I slammed it into the jaw of the first charging rodent. While it was reeling from the impact, I twisted around just in time to slam my improvised club into the face of the other one as it lunged at me. This time the grip of my pistol slammed into the rat's eye, splattering it. As the creature shrieked in agony I brought the heavy handle down on top of its skull, cracking it and killing the rat. Another twist allowed me to do the same for the remaining rodent, ending it with another solid blow to the top of the head.

As it crumbled to the ground, I just stood there; panting slightly as the adrenaline slowly left my system.

That had been….quite the rush.

It took me a moment to regain my calm and notice the screens that had popped up.

 **You have slain Giant Drowned Rat (LV10) X20! You gain 2600 EXP!**

 **You have leveled up!**

 **You have leveled up!**

 **Levels automatically slotted into [Gunslinger] class.**

 **You gain 20 Dexterity!**

 **You gain 20 Wisdom!**

 **You gain 20 Intelligence!**

 **You gain the skill [Pistol Whip]!**

 **You gain the skill [Improvised Weapon Mastery]!**

 **You gain the skill [Headshot]!**

 **Looting...complete!**

 **You gain Mangy Soaked Rat Pelt X20!**

 **You gain Totem of the Drowned Rat X4!**

 **You gain $400.00!**

Seriously, _enough_ with the mangy pelts!

Ignoring my irritation at the looting system, I examined my new skills eagerly. Just as Iustitia had said, **[Pistol Whip]** was a skill that let me use any pistol weapon I was wielding in close combat, with it counting as both a club (and thus able to gain the effects of my **[Club Mastery]** skill) and as an improvised close combat weapon, which led to the creation of the next skill, **[Improvised Weapon Mastery]** , which basically allowed me to use things that weren't, strictly speaking, weapons as weapons. Kinda like using glass bottles as either clubs or thrown weapons, cutlery as knives, that sort of thing. It also let me use pistol butts as clubs, which was pretty useful.

The last skill was **[Headshot]**. For a low cost of ten MP, I could activate it and double the chances of a critical hit on my next attack with any projectile weapon, not just a pistol. Downside was that it had a ten minute cooldown. Hopefully that length of time would go down as I continued to level up.

The loot (that wasn't waterlogged fur or money) was what I next turned my attention to. I love the fact that my power gives me the ability to see the description of things that are in my inventory.

 **[Totem of the Drowned Rat]**

 **Rarity: Uncommon**

 **Accessory**

 **A snarling rat's face that is seemingly perpetually wet. Carved from wood and dangling from a leather cord, it is a charm to ward away enemies five or more levels lower than its holder. As a result though, anyone who wears it has the sensation of being soaked and chilled to the bone so long as it remains on their person.**

So a vendor-trash item then. Good to know.

Satisfied with my examination of my loot, I had Iustitia switch back into Form One and started examining the crew quarters. There was basically nothing here aside from rotting leather and waterlogged cloth, which wasn't as surprising as you might expect. The crew on an old fashioned sailing ship barely had any money to rub together during voyages. The most likely location for treasure to be would be either in a treasure room or in a strongbox in the Captain's cabin, the latter seeming more likely to me if this place was anything like a normal RPG dungeon.

"Iustitia, why were my levels automatically assigned to **[Gunslinger]**?" I asked as I cut down more hammocks with her sword form.

"Because you gained two levels at once using only one of my forms, and thus one of your classes, Mistress." my Embryo explained calmly. "Gaining one level with a single class isn't unusual, but gaining two presumes you're training that particular class hard."

"Makes sense. So I just have to switch weapons during combat if I'm involved in a big scrum like that again?" I questioned.

"Precisely." Iustitia replied. "During a boss battle, you frequently switch between weapon forms as needed, so it wasn't as obvious last time."

Nodding, I resolved to switch my weapons around in fights more. I liked having the choice of where to put my levels.

Climbing the stairs to the next level, I had five more ways to go. One was the stairs leading up, which I crossed off for the moment. The others were two doors and two corridors. The doors lead to the 'Galley' and 'Brig', which makes me puzzled. Why would the brig, where prisoners be held, be on this floor rather than the bottom floor? More than that, why would it be next to the galley? I'd call that unhygienic.

Dismissing it, I'd gone into the Brig first and had found several cells with rusting iron bars, as well as a case full of old-fashioned manacles, both for wrists and ankles. Those could be useful for arresting gang members when I go out patrolling.

Taking the keys to the cuffs as well, I left the Brig after searching the cells and headed to the Galley. It was full of wooden tables and rusting cooking equipment, but the only thing that interested me was a wooden chest that practically screamed 'loot chest.'

Deeply suspicious of it, I used Iustitia to flip the lid open, just in case it was a trap or a Mimic monster, but I was relieved to see that it was what it looked like. Inside it was a large red scarf, emblazoned with multiple skull and crossbones in white and black thread.

 **Muffler of the Jolly Roger**

 **Rarity: Rare**

 **Throat Armor**

 **Defense: +5**

 **A long scarf that flaps in the wind silently when the user is stationary. In addition to making the wearer look badass and protecting the throat, it also adds an additional +20 to the wearer's Dexterity. Also useful to keep warm in cold areas.**

Oh god, now I have a _dramatic_ piece of equipment. If I _ever_ ran into Clockblocker again, he would not let me live it down. I still equipped it though, as it allowed me to finally fill every single armor slot that I had.

Satisfied with that, I still examined the rest of the Galley for anything useful, which amounted to a drawer full of knives, meat cleavers and other largish cooking implements. After leaving the dingy kitchen/eating area behind, I headed towards the rear (stern) area of the ship.

Once there, I found the rear gun room, and I suspected that there'd be another one in the opposite direction. It was filled with numerous cannons facing towards what were clearly closed gun ports. Most of the cannons were rusted to the point of uselessness, but four were in near perfect condition, oddly enough.

"Iustitia...can I put these things in my inventory?" I asked slowly, eyeing the shining steel cannonades with interest.

"Theoretically, yes." my Embryo said slowly. "Why would you _want_ them, however?"

"Base defense." I said simply. "At some point, I might try to claim a dimensional pocket as my base, and a base needs defenses. Even if I'm the only one we know of that can enter dimensional pockets, the likelihood that someone can't buy some sort of dimensional tunnel from Toybox isn't entirely out of the question. Thus, defenses are needed."

Toybox had come up in my talks with Dad yesterday. Only peripherally though, as the Rogue Tinker group was reclusive and only allowed Tinkers to join them.

"Very well. Take your mirror out, open it to the inventory screen and tap it onto the item that you want to put into your inventory." Iustitia instructed me. Following her instructions, I did so and gawped in shock as the massive cannonade was sucked into my mirror like water going down a sink drain. Shaking my head, I repeated the process on the other three working cannonades, as well as about twenty cannonballs, before going to look for the Powder Room, where all of the gunpowder on the ship would be stored.

I found it at the rear of the Gun Room and took all of the powder barrels I could find before checking and removing the ones with poor quality or wet and useless powder. I also took four sets of the equipment needed to arm and fire the cannonades.

"This has been a very profitable little trip, Iustitia." I said with a smirk as I sauntered out of the Forward Gun Room twenty minutes later. "Eight cannonades and more than enough cannon balls, equipment and gunpowder to use them. All I need is a manual on how to fire the things and It'll be perfect. If I don't find one, I'll surf the web; there's bound to be _some_ kind of LARP video or something on how to fire the damned things."

"Agreed. But Mistress...this ship...we haven't seen nearly enough monsters." my Embryo said seriously. "I am deeply suspicious."

"Join the club." I muttered, looking about warily as I came upon the stairs leading up again. Aside from the scrum of rats on the deck below, I hadn't been attacked at all. This led me to draw a conclusion that I didn't like...I was going to be ambushed on the deck of this ship itself. Just lovely.

"Keep an eye out for anything or anyone, Iustitia." I cautioned her as I started up the stairs. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

 **Skill: [Danger Sense] has leveled up! LV1-LV2!**

I froze at that little informational window. Just _great_. I _hate it_ when my instincts were right about crap happening to me.

The topmost floor of this 'dungeon' (as Dad had started calling the dimensional pockets) was the main deck of the ship as I had suspected. The sole mast was snapped in half, with the topmost half missing. And, just as I had half-dreaded, gathered on the fo'c's'le was a group of twenty humanoid enemies.

The enemies looked like undead. There was literally no other way to describe them. Their flesh was white and looked as if they'd died from drowning. Their clothes were soaking wet and they carried pitted and rusting cutlasses in their hands.

At least in the open air, the mixed smell of rot and decay wasn't strong enough to make me lose my lunch.

I blinked as another window popped up in front of me.

 **[As you raided the Armory and stole their better weapons, the attack strength of the [Drowned Dead Pirates] have been sharply reduced and their ranged attacks locked!]**

Heh...well, this works for me. Transforming Iustitia into her Third Form, I pulled the trigger, using the bullet time to aim it right into the head of the lead pirate, an ugly brute who was missing his jaw entirely. I seem to remember an Earth Aleph film that had the advice 'remove the head or destroy the brain' as being the best way to kill zombies. Might as well see if it worked here.

" **[Headshot]!** " I hissed as I fired. The bullet wailed across the deck and slammed right into the forehead of my target, making its head explode like a melon.

"Holy shit!" I blurted in reaction. "OK, its official: the **[Gunslinger]** class rocks. Iustitia, I hope you like being in this form, because we'll be using it against monsters a lot."

"It brings me joy that my evolution pleases you so much, Mistress." Iustitia said in delight.

My Embryo was very easy to please, apparently.

As the miniature horde started to shamble towards me, I took aim and started firing again, putting two bullets each in another pair of zombie heads, bringing both down. The sixth and final shot slammed in zombie jaw and tore it off, but the undead barely seemed to notice. Before my gun could even start reloading, I switched over to the **[Cudgel of the Law]** and started to run at the shambling crowd of dead pirates. I could feel the power of **[Order in the Court]** flowing through me and grinned savagely. There was one skill of the **[Maceman]** class that I hadn't used yet, and I was about to rectify that situation...

" **[Mighty Smash]!** " I shouted, drawing back the club in my hand and then slamming it into the stomach of the first zombie that I reached. The force of the blow made the zombie pirate fly back like a bullet and bowl over quite a few of its fellows, causing something of a domino effect as the rest of the drowned dead tripped up over their thrashing and prostate fellows.

If I wasn't dealing with a bunch of killer corpses then it would likely have been funny to watch.

Still, back to the task at hand. Roaring out a battle-cry, I charged forward and started smashing heads before the undead could fully recover themselves. Soon enough there were just three left, standing near the opposite side of the main deck from me. With another mental flick I switched Iustitia back to gun form and managed to take all three down with a double headshot each.

 **You have slain Drowned Dead Pirates (LV12) X20! You gain 2800 EXP!**

 **You have leveled up!**

 **You have leveled up!**

 **Please select which class you wish to level up!**

 **Looting...complete!**

 **You gain $1000.00!**

 **You gain [Symbol of the Brotherhood] X10!**

 **You gain [Rusted Steel Cutlass] X20!**

Smiling in relief at Iustitia's suggestion paying off, I happily assigned both of the level-ups to **[Swordsman]** , making it the closest Job I had to Level 10. All of the skills leveled up in the Job, plus I got my hands on one new skill, **[Rending Slash]** , which dealt extra damage to unarmored enemies. Considering the number of unarmored enemies I was finding here, that wasn't too bad of a skill.

"Now then..." I looked around and spotted the door leading to the Captain's Cabin. After checking the fo'c's'le and poop deck (who invented these terms?!) and stowing another smattering of belaying pins in my inventory, I started to head to the door.

"Iustitia, anything that you can tell me about bosses?" I asked quietly.

"There are several categories of bosses, each more powerful than the last." my Embryo replied equally as quietly. "Ordinary Boss Monsters, Rare Boss Monsters, Superior Boss Monsters, Unique Boss Monsters and Superior Unique Boss Monsters. The **[Rat King of Hamelin]** was a Rare Boss Monster, while Hamelin himself counted as a Unique Boss Monster. While the rewards from Ordinary to Superior Boss monsters are good, rewards from UBM's and SUBM's blow them out of the water. Unfortunately, the amount of effort needed to defeat them in the first place is also correspondingly greater."

"Great. So what is this one likely to be?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"I'm hoping that it's an RBM, or an SBM at worst, but I think it's actually a UBM." Iustitia admitted. "This place has been almost bare of monsters; we've only fought forty-three or so monsters since we've arrived. That leads me to believe that most of the power of the remnant has been gathered in the boss."

Lovely. So I'll be fighting against Hamelin Version 2.0, Despair Incarnate. Just _wonderful_.

The door before me was large and had the skull and crossbones of the Jolly Roger carved into it. I sighed, rolled my shoulders to loosen them up and raised the gun that was my Embryo as I opened the door with my other hand.

 **Name: Taylor Hebert**

 **Cape Name: Justitia**

 **Gender: Female**

 **Level: 15**

 **Title: None (*)**

 **Job (s): (1) Swordsman (LV9)**

 **(2) Maceman (LV2)**

 **(3) Gunslinger (LV4)**

 **EXP: 1573/1900**

 **Embryo: Maiden of Justice, Iustitia**

 **Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms**

 **Embryo Forms Achieved: 3/7**

 **Stats**

 **HP: 990**

 **STA: 4300**

 **MP: 425**

 **Strength: 75**

 **Toughness: 75**

 **Endurance: 77**

 **Dexterity: 55**

 **Intelligence: 115**

 **Wisdom: 120**

 **Luck: ?**


End file.
